State Financial Control Board members are praising the city’s new budget.
This is not good news about the budget. It’s bad news about the board.
“You’re off to a great start,” state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, a board member, told Mayor de Blasio on Tuesday. City Comptroller Scott Stringer, another board member, likewise lauded what he called the city’s “strong, balanced” spending plan.
Remember, this board was set up to make sure Gotham steered clear of the hokey fiscal practices that nearly sunk it in the ’70s.
So why the praise — especially when the actual numbers just released from DiNapoli’s office suggest the city is reverting back to those same dangerous practices?
For the numbers confirm what The Post and others fear: New Yorkers will be paying billions long into the future for raises de Blasio just gave the unions for work done as far back as 2008.
And the biggest hits from de Blasio’s gift won’t come until at least 2019.
Worse, funding for this retroactive pay is based on dubious “savings,” including $3.4 billion in voluntary steps by city workers.
Meanwhile, these same workers won’t pay a dime toward their health care. Which is why teachers union boss Mike Mulgrew brags that the new contract imposes “no additional costs” on members.
In the run-up to the ’70s crisis, the city similarly borrowed to pay operating costs — until lenders balked. Fiscal watchdogs warn against such tricks, because it’s like mortgaging your home to pay for this week’s groceries.
“We’re kicking billions in back pay into the future,” says the Manhattan Institute’s Nicole Gelinas. While “watchdogs” such as DiNapoli and Stringer refuse to bark.