John Liu, You Were Elected To Get On Camera And Put Yourself In Position To Become The Next Mayor, Not Carry Water For Public Employee Unions
And by “half” he means that “only” $2.4 billion of last year’s budget went toward increased pension costs for public employees:
Posted: April 7th, 2011 | Filed under: Follow The MoneyController John Liu pushed back against Mayor Bloomberg’s drive to reduce pension benefits, saying half the city’s increase in pension costs was caused by Wall Street.
A report from his office said city taxpayers paid $3 billion last year to make up for low returns on the pension funds’ investments after the economy crashed.
In contrast, increased benefits for cops, firefighters, teachers and other city workers have captured headlines — but were only worth $2.4 billion last year, Liu said.