So, as expected, and despite the thousands of protesters, the NY State legislature approved an emergency spending bill that includes a one day per week furlough for unionized employees. It’s Governor Blinky’s revenge against the unions for the sin of insisting that the State abide by the contract it signed. Nobody ever offered state workers more money when times were good, but of course they’re happy to go after them when times are tough and the governor and legislature mismanage the state to the point of bankruptcy. To close a $9.2 billion deficit, Blinky and his posse want to screw state employees (but only those represented by a union) out of $250 million by giving them eight weeks of unpaid time off. That only leaves another $9.175 billion to go. God forbid they should raise taxes on rich people.
Of course, the unions are already challenging this furlough as illegal (which, although I’m no lawyer, seems pretty clear to me: it’s both an illegal lockout and a contract violation). My old union – CSEA – has already filed for a restraining order, and I expect the other unions to follow suit. Especially after Blinky yesterday said the unions “…just want to frolic along do commercials and have rallies.” Oh, and do our jobs and get paid, unlike you and the legislature, whose only actual job is to get a budget in place by April 1st, which you never, ever manage to do. Of course, you keep getting paid, don’t you?
Go frolic yourself, Governor.
A little out of touch on the Outer Banks. Just saw the twister news. Checked in to see if OKat was OK. Thanks for the news. Later.
Okat, I’m glad you’re OK.
About 25 years ago a small twister went down my block, in Brooklyn. Sounded like a freight train. Ripped down trees and awnings and piled it all in the middle of the street. Took but minutes and it was gone.
There was another one somewhere in Brooklyn last week. It was reported as the first one ever in Brooklyn but of course that’s not true. Several years ago there was another one. Also reported as the only one ever to touch down in Brooklyn.
It reminds me of the play Ten Blocks on the Camino Real by Tennessee Williams, in which the gypsy’s daughter’s virginity was restored every month at the festival.
Oh, didn’t see that. Glad you’re all OK in OK, OK. Tornadoes are pretty rare (though not unheard of) around here, which is fine by me. It’s not flat enough for them to do a whole lot of damage on a wide swath (they run into a hill and break up). Though we did have a microburst back in ’98 that wiped out a lot of trees and knocked out our power for 2 weeks. In the beginning of a very hot September (the “Labor Day Derecho” that killed a few people and did something like $130 million in damages). That sucked.
It snows from time to time, but we don’t generally get tornadoes, hurricanes or earthquakes. I’ll gladly shovel a little snow instead.
Our Lt. Governor, a rich old fat white guy on his third wife (whose appointment to office was legally dubious, and whose job consists, from what I can tell, of sitting around and waiting for the Governor to die or resign in disgrace at a salary of $151,500 a year) is threatening the working Civil Servants of NY State with layoffs if the courts declare the furlough illegal.
This is, of course, because it’s the goddamn workers who ran the State into the ground, and not the old fat rich white guys who got tax cuts, or their sycophants in the NYS legislature that do their bidding.
His previous genius plan to “fix” our budget deficit by borrowing $6 billion was so bad, even Gov Blinky knew it was stupid.
There was no coverage of the state workers protest, except for Channel 1, the local news. They showed a large crowd saying hundreds of protesters ….
The tea loonies, on the other hand, get 75 guys with teabags on their hats to a protest and the coverage is endless.
Perhaps it’s the millinery.
Glad to here Kat’s alright. Man PJ if I had 8 weeks unpaid I’d be homeless.