On Labor Day, Democrat Andrew Cuomo — New York State attorney general, son of former governor Mario Cuomo, and candidate for governor — wrote an op-ed in the New York Daily News titled “Labor, be part of the solution: Public employee unions must make sacrifices for the sake of the state.” The dauphin is taking on the public sector:
New York stands at a crossroads. Faced with the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, our state government is functionally bankrupt. For too long the state has lived far beyond its means, leading the nation in virtually every major category of public spending.
All true. So what’s the solution? The gubernatorial candidate channels former governor Hugh Carey, credited with saving New York City from bankruptcy in the ’70s:
Carey’s determined and creative leadership brought New York back from the brink of civic and financial catastrophe … through shared sacrifice and a balanced approach that did justice to the interests of both business and labor.
District Counsel 37 head Victor Gotbaum and Albert Shanker, president of the United Federation of Teachers, came to the rescue. The former agreed to shelve pay raises for municipal workers; the latter helped stave off bankruptcy by buying city bonds with pension funds.
In a time of great public need, public employees stepped up to the plate and took the long view. And their sacrifices paid off…
I suggest that today is another moment in time where the public sector (along with everyone else) must make sacrifices for the common good.
Cuomo is editorially careful, commending public employees for hoped-for sacrifices rather than condemning them for past largesse. And he hedges with a few platitudes, rhetorically genuflecting to union power. His message to public-employee unions seems to be: I like you guys, I really do, so don’t get mad, but honestly, you’re part of the problem.
Is Andrew Cuomo’s rhetoric credible? Maybe not. Governor Paterson’s promised fiscal austerity in his first State of the State Address didn’t pan out. Public opinion and economic realities are demanding spending cuts, but they are hard to realize in the state’s union-dominated legislative process.
But the rhetoric is a big change nonetheless. Old Albany politicos confirm that, just a few years ago, it was unheard of for an established Dem to criticize public-employee unions. This is one small step.