The Working File

The New York Times lead editorial today:

Concern over swelling deficits should not stop Congress from taking steps to revive the economy. But rising deficits — coupled with long-term budget problems driven mostly by the rising cost of health care — make it imperative to get the most from every dollar that is spent on stimulus. That means spending less money for tax cuts for business and high-income Americans, and more for government programs like, say, unemployment relief and aid to states.

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The deteriorating job situation also calls for ensuring that states do not have to make unduly burdensome cuts in their own budgets. State and local governments are big employers in their own right, and money that is fed through them quickly reaches beneficiaries and contractors, as well as employees, helping to save and create jobs by supporting

The Stimulus Debate – NYTimes.com.

The New York Times news article on Thursday:

Bolstered in part by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s spending, the average New York City employee cost the city $107,000 a year in wages, health insurance, pension and other benefits in the 2008 fiscal year, an increase of 63 percent since 2000, according to a new report.

City worker compensation grew twice as fast as that of employees in the private sector and elsewhere in the public sector during the same period, the Citizens Budget Commission said in the report, which was released on Thursday. The increase was driven by contractual raises that outpaced the inflation rate, and by the rising cost of health insurance and pension benefits, said the commission, a business-backed research group.

The group said those benefits have remained “exceptionally generous” under Mr. Bloomberg.

And with the city staring at a projected $7 billion deficit by 2011, fiscal watchdogs are intensifying their calls for the Bloomberg administration to act more aggressively to control employee costs.

City Employee Pay Is Outpacing Private Sector, Report Says – NYTimes.com.

The rest of the country is starting to wake up, when will New York?  In Pennsylvania:

We again call for the state Legislature to adopt Sen. Pat Browne’s ”Unified Contribution Pension Plan.” Although this proposal can only be offered to new employees because of constitutional restrictions, we believe it is a good first step. It is fair to both employees and taxpayers. It calls for a taxpayer matching contribution of up to 6 percent of salary and the plan would be open to all public employees, including state employees, public school employees and municipal employees. This reform, moving state employees away from a defined-benefit approach to the defined-contribution concept used in private industry, makes much more sense.

More than ever, state pension reform must begin — themorningcall.com.  And in California:

Now comes Fullerton’s city council, which this week voted against a contract to increase most government workers’ pensions by 25 percent, retroactive to the employee’s hire date. The council had approved the new deal in a closed door session, according to the Orange County Register, but then backed away from it when one council member made the pension increase public.

The State Worker: Fullerton city council says no to pension increases.  Note how the giveaway to the tax eaters was originally done in private, until a whistleblower let the public know.  The Orange County Register opined “Better Late Than Never.”  That article makes it clear that most of the city councel still wants to give away taxpayer money to the taxeaters fo no good reason,and is miffed thattheir theft was made public and opposed.

The NY Times editorial argues that state government spending is preferable to private sector tax cuts because the state expenditures do more to boost the economy and are used sooner, but the above demonstrates that the biggest increases in government spending lately has been in pension sweeteners, and those pension payments sit in pension fund investments.  There is no reason to believe that state government pension fund investments are any more efficient than private person investment saving, and the latter have the virtue of not involving often made in corrupt, backroom deals.

By the way, much of the above comes courtesy of Instapundit.

See my prior post on NY pensions