Mayor Bloomberg promised yester day to get behind Gov. Cuomo’s proposed public-pension reforms, big time. Good.
“We will work to pass several basic reforms to bring our pension system into the 21st century,” Bloomberg said in his annual State of the City Address.
Let’s face it: If Albany won’t fix statewide pension rules now, when they threaten to bankrupt the city and the state, then it never will.
“We must . . . capitalize on the reform agenda that Gov. Cuomo has brought to Albany,” he said. “Gov. Cuomo campaigned on pension reform, and he will have our support.”
No one has called more attention to New York’s “pension bomb” than this newspaper. And Bloomberg reiterated the problem yesterday.
“This year, we will spend $7 billion on pension costs, up from the $1.5 billion in 2001,” he said. Thus, “the average New York City tax filer will be paying $2,400 more to cover pension costs than they did back then . . . We certainly can’t afford pension costs on that level.”
And costs are only headed upward.
Changes will apply only to new hires, so initial savings will be negligable.
But little steps for little feet.
Bloomberg wants lawmakers to hike the retirement age for non-uniformed city employees to 65, which could save billions in the long term.
He also wants them to give the city the right to negotiate pension benefits directly with municipal unions.
“Right now, state elected officials are setting pension benefits for city workers, and sticking another group, city taxpayers, with the bill,” Mike said, correctly.
In the past, of course, city politicians did that job themselves — which is one of the reasons why the state felt compelled to take over the process.
But the pendulum has swung too far.
New Yorkers should rally behind Bloomberg’s call. After all, that $7 billion in pension costs could go toward schools or cops — or just to balance the budget.
Or soar — and bankrupt the city.
New York needs relief.