Court Weighs New York Furlough Option

When is a fiscal emergency not a fiscal emergency? When one of New York's largest unions says so. New York faces a $10 billion hole in its budget, and the structural deficits are in the billions of dollars, and yet the CSEA doesn't think that the situation is an emergency so it's fighting Democratic Governor David Paterson's furlough proposal.

The Civil Service Employees Association says there is no emergency to justify setting aside negotiated contract terms.

A judge had temporarily blocked the furlough order, requesting additional information.

All the information you need to know is this:

1) New York has failed to have an on time budget for most of the past three decades, contributing to higher costs for taxpayers that become a burden on all taxpayers in the form of higher borrowing costs and higher outlays.
2) New York has a structural deficit because it spends far more than it hopes to take in.
3) New York's problem is that it has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.
4) The unions don't see anything wrong with the situation so long as they're getting their share of that spending.

It's little wonder that the unions get a bad rap.

It's well deserved.

For the CSEA to claim that there is no emergency is asinine. Of course, this has also been an emergency that has been growing steadily as the unions demand more spending despite revenues that can't keep up. Tax hikes are chasing people out of the state, and it's killing business opportunities, but the unions want their share.