And Pataki, Keep In Mind, Has Nothing To Lose

The current city tabloid cause célèbre — the TWU pension buyback, which union leadership cites as making the strike worth it — may be vetoed by the Governor, provided he has the balls to do so:

Gov. George E. Pataki’s office said last night that he was inclined to veto a key provision of the New York City transit contract settlement announced this week — one that gives 20,000 workers refunds of pension contributions — noting that he had vetoed a similar provision twice before.

The provision, which would require a change in state law, would give many workers refunds of payments they made to their pension plan between 1994 and 2001, when most workers contributed 5.3 percent of their earnings. In 2001, the contribution for most workers was reduced to 2 percent.

The provision, part of the settlement reached on Tuesday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, delighted many transit workers, particularly those who joined the system in 1994 or earlier. It is expected to strengthen support for the contract among the union’s 33,700 members, who will vote on the deal by next month.

. . .

Aides said the governor was surprised and disappointed by the inclusion of the provision in the settlement.

The refund provision has drawn scrutiny on editorial pages. Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal argued that the authority “caved on pension reform”; The Daily News asserted that the union and its president, Roger Toussaint, “made out like bandits”; and The New York Post argued that the cost of the refunds was “far too high” and the provision “difficult to fathom.”

Mr. Pataki, a Republican, appointed the chairman of the authority, Peter S. Kalikow, and has considerable influence over it. Even so, it would be unusual for the governor to block a bill that the authority and its largest union had agreed to support.

Union leadership has, in the Post’s words, “gloated” that the buyback would more than pay for fines levied against individual workers. But that still doesn’t help 13,700 workers who didn’t contribute at the higher rate . . .