Oh Happy Day?

2 Days. 483 points. Today Investors were skipping down Wall Street whistling. The market is up over 200 points singing “doowah diddy diddy…” Thankfully, they will remember none of this in the morning when they face down the reality of Merrill Lynch’s, Google’s and Microsoft’s numbers. Alas, I can’t seem to turn away from the current financial drama, such a scintillating tale of economic woe unfolding at the pace of a John Grisham novel, a real page turner. Now, if we pile on new developments occurring in my other favorite topic, public sector benefits and taxation, then we truly have a most entertaining day. Today I read that there is a real prospect of Governor Paterson signing a new round of bills to boost, yes boost, the already outrageous benefits of fire and police officers.

This from the editorial section of today’s Newsday;

“The bills would prohibit the reduction of state retiree health benefits; lift limits on disability pensions for fire and police officers who suffer heart attacks off-duty; and allow fire or police officers to join the other force after retiring, making them eligible for two full pensions…”

Am I reading this correctly? I thought we had a fight on in Albany to reduce taxes in NY State and these types of bills do just the opposite. What will happen to our taxes in the future when these pension checks come due? Our legislators found the time to send these types of bills to the Governor when we are mired in economic uncertainty. Once again, I shake my head.

The editorial urges Governor Patterson to veto the greed because “pension costs are busting government budgets and burdening private-sector workers whose benefits are far less generous.” Took the words right out of my mouth. There is a real concern that Paterson may support the bill because not only is the Governor a huge friend of big labor but his father, Basil Paterson, is a bigger friend of labor; his law firm is a lobbyist for public sector labor unions. Connections have an awful way of connecting the powerful to something that stinks. Let’s hope that rationality prevails.