That’s Why You Want A Businessman In Office

Because only a businessman really understands creative accounting:

Mayor Bloomberg will be able to balance next year’s $70 billion budget because higher pension costs are being spread over 22 years — with the largest part of the bill coming due at the tail end, The Post has learned.

Sources said that arrangement means Bloomberg only has to spend an extra $575 million next year for pensions, instead of the $1 billion he had already set aside.

“It’s going to give them $425 million more for balancing the budget,” said one source. “That’s basically how they’re getting through this.”

But what does anyone care as long as headlines read “Brighter Bloomberg budget is on tap: Budget watchdogs predict this year’s $70 billion budget will be far rosier than last year” or even “As Fiscal Cloud Lifts, Mayor Offers a Budget Free of Tax Increases or Broad Layoffs”?

Keep Pickles Pickles!

Thank goodness at least someone is taking a stand against overpriced pickles:

Fairhurst is banking on the fact that the process of fermentation, during which helpful bacteria eat the sugars in the cucumbers making them technically “alive” and in need of refrigeration, will elevate her pickles to the popularity enjoyed by other “live” products like kombucha and kim chi.

In contrast, Brooklyn’s new class of pickles — and peppers, string beans and fiddlehead ferns — are shelf-stable after being preserved in vinegar, and without all the good stuff.

Plus, they’re expensive.

“I don’t really understand [the expensive prices],” said Fairhurst, who made the move to Brooklyn after being priced out of the Lower East Side — where the shop had been since 1920 — and still sell her sells her cucs for $6 a quart. “Pick[l]ing isn’t rocket science. It’s just salt-water and garlic!”

The Horrible Truth About Creating A Permissive “Franco-Friendly Environment”

A NYU professor is allegedly fired for deigning to uphold his attendance policy:

James Franco’s tired James Dean act got an NYU professor booted from the school last year — after the teacher dared to give the overhyped Hollywood hunk a “D” for blowing off class, a lawsuit charges.

[The professor] said he slapped the “127 Hours” star with the bad grade because he missed 12 of his 14 “Directing the Actor II” classes while pursuing a master’s in fine arts.

[The professor] said he then suffered all kinds of drama — first from Franco, who publicly ridiculed him, then from his department, which axed him over the “D.”

“The school has bent over backwards to create a Franco-friendly environment, that’s for sure,” [the professor], 58, told The Post. “The university has done everything in its power to curry favor with James Franco.”

Unsavory allegations of quid pro quos among other professors included at link!

If “Year-Round” Isn’t Already A Verb We Should Try Making It One

Kind of an interesting backstory to the weird ice skating rink down at Coney Island, an early attempt to “year-round” the place:

At the opening, the city had purchased 120 tables and chairs for the later upper boardwalk frontage dining room, facing the huge ocean — that has never once been used.

The vast upper level dance floor has never been used. And the last time that I could get in to inspect it, there were 50 folded wooden tables stacked up top near the Boardwalk, most never opened.

We know of just two conventions, the widow of Martin Luther King, Corretta Scott King came some 20 years ago to a Saturday packed house audience and, earlier, the Kings County Democratic Club, held a borough convention meeting there.

The Parks Department’s local office did nothing whatsoever to operate it, other than to let one of the few spokespersons who had testified against its location — he got the concession to sell or lease ice skates — and to bring Nathans in to sell hot dogs. The Boardwalk tables were never set up.

The Abe Stark Arena is a tribute to the neglect of Coney Island.

Was There An NFL Game In Manhattan Or Something?

Because I’m pretty sure the Philadelphia Eagles still play in Philadelphia:

Brookfield is among 40,000 entities that owe the city an eye-popping $149 million in overdue business taxes dating to 2000, the Finance Department says.

The list also includes the Philadelphia Eagles, the WNBA, Heineken USA, Comcast Sports, the company that built the Trump International Building on Central Park West, the Binder and Binder law firm, the OTR Media billboard company, former City Council President Andrew Stein and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

“We fully expect companies to pay any debt owed to the city and we aggressively pursue those that do not,” said city Finance Commissioner David Frankel.

It was unclear why the Eagles owe $15,263.69 in business taxes to the city. A spokesman did not return calls.

Then again, the Giants did play at the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium until Giants Stadium was finished in 1976. So maybe it’s from then?