Bloomberg To Candidates: Retroactive Employee Raises Won't Fly
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a message f0r mayoral hopefuls who are thinking about giving city workers retroactive raises when they take office.
It's a terrible idea.
As 1010 WINS' Stan Brooks reported Tuesday, Bloomberg said streamlining the budget and increasing workers' pay retroactively across the board are mutually exclusive goals.
"You just can't walk in and say, 'We're going to cut waste – there may be some waste, I'm sure there is – but it's tiny.' We're talking about billions and billions of dollars here, and you don't find that kind of waste. 'And, well, I'm going to find efficiencies' – I wish you could," the mayor said. "You go and negotiate with unions that will not give up their pension funds or their health benefits."
Bloomberg To Candidates: Retroactive Employee Raises Won't Fly
Plain and simple, Bloomberg said, the city cannot afford it.
Moreover, Bloomberg said, pay increases should be tied to productivity – and productivity cannot be increased retroactively.
"You can't get retroactive productivity increases, so there should not be retroactive savings," he said. "I don't know of any business; I don't know of any of our taxpayers who get retroactive raises. The truth of the matter is a lot of our taxpayers have suffered from being laid off."
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