Opinion

A sneaky side deal

When Gov. Cuomo announced a deal between the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Transport Workers Union, he said it was “fair to transit workers, fiscally responsible for the MTA, and will have no impact on fares.”

Scarcely a week later, we’re learning about the fine print: a “side letter agreement” for a “labor benefit account” that no one involved seems to want to talk about. Especially the MTA, which told The Wall Street Journal it won’t comment until its board formally approves the agreement.

TWU President John Samuelsen isn’t talking either, though he does acknowledge that while the money is to be controlled by the MTA, it “gives the union wide latitude.” While declining to elaborate, he also says the fund will be used mostly for medical benefits.

All of which underscores just how big a victory the union won with this deal — and the bad precedent it sets for other outstanding contract negotiations, especially those between cash-strapped New York City and its own public-sector unions.

Now, although the deals the state-run MTA works out with its unions are not an automatic precedent for negotiations with city unions, this one does make it harder for Mayor de Blasio to hold the line.

If the governor, who touts himself as a fiscal conservative, can be generous with the TWU, it gives de Blasio political cover to spend more than the city can afford to keep his own union pals happy.

Surely the test is this: If the MTA deal is good for taxpayers and workers alike, why do we have $6 million payments shoved off into “side letter agreements”? Why not just tell New Yorkers what these financial commitments are if they are all as “fair” and “fiscally responsible” as advertised?

Unfortunately for New York taxpayers, the MTA in its negotiations seems to have adopted Nancy Pelosi’s standard for ObamaCare: We have to have the agreement with the Transport Workers Union ratified to find out what’s in it.