Capital Confidential is reporting that people can watch live footage of Tier V being signed, with much cheering. I hope that some honest TV news organization will pair this footage with file footage of George Pataki signing the massive pension enhancement bill in 2000. And report that the latter is what older generations gave to themselves, and the former is a decision to make younger people worse off to pay for it. One of many such decisions.

The State Budget office, according to this source, has a budget calculator showing how much money will be saved by cutting the pensions of future public employees. Those savings will not be felt for years. But there is no such calculator showing the cost of past unearned retroactive pension enhancements, enhancements that were described, if they were described at all, as costing zero. Almost all of the state legislators who voted for Tier V also voted for and will personally benefit from those enhancements, including Governor Paterson (when he was a State Senator). Cutting benefits for future generartions is the politician's and union's share of shared sacrifice, they will likely say while our taxes soar and services are gutted. And unlike the "savings" from Tier V in the calculator, the cost of what they have done includes New York City.

I'll say it again, these were not two decisions, but one decision. This was inevitable as soon as the pension enhancements, and cuts in pension contribtions, occured. The decision to cut the cash pay of new hires as well is also part of that decision. So are the tax increases and service cuts. And there is worse to come.

The people you see expecting gratitude for what they have done for us, are the people who have actually done things to us, because they can. The money isn't enough for them. They also want to tell us, and perhaps themselve, that they have cut taxes, preserved services, preserved benefits for future employees, when they have served only themselves. They want to be considered heros, decent and fair minded people. Their legacy? They'd rather not discuss it.

They'll say that "realism" is required, since everything they have promised themselves is grandfathered and guaranteed, and cannot be taken back. They would say that, wouldn't they? Governor Paterson also recently signed a bill permanently requiring future public employees to pay dues to the unions who negotiated these deals. No doubt a bill prohibiting them from voting in union elections, to the extent they have any, will follow. So will "realism" about what services New Yorkers can expect in exchange from the highest state and local tax burden as a share of income in the U.S.

We owe them nothing. Our children owe them nothing. They are a mafia.