Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal
Top municipal officials including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg knocked on state legislators’ doors Wednesday and told them why they must vote to drastically reduce the cost of public pensions for future workers.
“Our current course is simply unsustainable,” Bloomberg told reporters during a break in his meetings with legislative leaders. “The public is about to really understand when we say, ‘We don’t have anymore.’”
Bloomberg and some of the state’s most influential mayors and county executives said the Legislature has made the pension plan for members of powerful public unions too rich for taxpayers to afford.
“We’re tired of people blaming us,” said Bloomberg, an independent. He said that when he became mayor in 2002, the city’s pension cost was $1.5 billion a year, but has grown to $8 billion a year.