Friday, November 21, 2014

INDEPENDENT BUDGET OFFICE FORECASTING SMALL BUDGET GAP FOR NYC

The NYC Independent Budget Office has released a report on city finances. Harris Lirtzman, who knows finance, has some analysis that he sent to ICE. It is copied below in full.

The IBO projected today a budget deficit of approximately $2.5 billion for the next fiscal year. That represents 3.3% on the City's $75 billion budget.

This is sofa-change for the City, which in the past had to close $5-6 billion deficits on much smaller overall budgets.

I raise all this because you'll probably remember the panicked cries that went out before and during the contract negotiations that paying the retroactive increase would break the bank.  So the contract was extended to nine years and the retro stretched out beyond the term of the contract.  Employees who quit before the new contract got nothing and retirees are being told to wait until an arbitrator can find $60 million somewhere else in the agreement to move around to pay them.

No disaster.  No bankruptcy.  No fiscal crisis.  Some of us said loudly at the time that there would be no disaster or fiscal crisis.

Unfortunately, our leadership bought the narrative lock, stock and barrel and we got a lousy deal through 2018 with payments stretched out to 2020.





8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't forget those chapter leaders telling the members to vote yes. Otherwise, they'll be at the end up at the end of the line on contract negotiation. Those chapter leaders were parroting the union leadership's doom day strategy making the fear of getting nothing the impetus in ratifying the contract. It's such a disappointment that the members were duped in believing the that the leadership would look out for them.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me again, get stuck with another lousy contract - AGAIN!

Anonymous said...

We work 180 days a year. Get more holidays than anyone else on Gods Green Earth. Get to bank our sick days. Have a ral pension. Have a TDA that is better than most 401Ks. Out by 55. Make over 100,000. Less than 1%,are shown the door by force. Home by sunset. TIme to work a second job, after school, nights, etc. and get to spend all summer on the beach....Yep, we got it bad.

Anonymous said...

You must not be a teacher .you sound too jaded and don't know about the stress the characters. And the torture. If you're not a teacher don't speak as though you know how hard life is for some of us now.

Anonymous said...

To 10:15-Compare us to people who have the same education as we havr and we don't nearly have it so good. Do you spend any time marking papers or planning ridiculous common core lessons at home? Do you have troubled young people who don't want to learn in your classes? Do you have an administrator breathing down your neck every five minutes because of some Danielson garbage or because you won't pass kids who barely ever show up? Are you told to lock up supplies as they will get stolen? Are you paying out of pocket to decorate your room? Why do half of new teachers leave within the first five years and just about everyone else is hoping they can soon retire? Please tell me where you work so I can apply there or what you smoke so I can buy some of it.

Anonymous said...

Right - and you watch over the next few years as that small deficit turns into a surplus. Then see how stupid NYC teachers feel for accepting this deal. We can all thank our brilliant and talented leader Michael Mulgrew for selling this line of bullshit.

Anonymous said...

People can and do blame Mulgrew, but most of us have Master degrees and critical thinking skills. All it took was a little common sense to figure out that the contract was pure garbage.
Anyone who voted for this contract, has absolutely no right to complain. My 12 year old said no one with any common sense would vote for this, but I guess sheep don't have any.

Anonymous said...

The last comment is sad but true.

Anonymous said...

Dear Anonymous Nov. 22 10:15 PM

You say "we work 180 days a year..."....sweetheart, if you think anyone believes you're a teacher you are deluded......now a pissed off ex-wife, thats a real possibility!