City Council Speaker Julie Menin says she’s far more responsible than Mayor Zohran Mamdani; here’s his chance to prove her wrong on at least one front: the council’s obscene bid to shower $10,000 bonuses on public-school teaching assistants.
United Federation of Teachers boss Mike Mulgrew threatens “all-out war” if the mayor vetoes the bill to award the cash, but the mayor owes the UFT nothing — and it’s his duty to the general public to say no.
No city union should ever get a raise outside the collective-bargaining process: Since City Hall can’t cut union pay in other ways, it’s robbing the taxpayers if it doesn’t make labor negotiate for any hike.
Menin, in fact, should feel ashamed of letting the giveaway go ahead — this simply shows that the council’s incapable of being more fiscally responsible than even a declared socialist.
Sure, Mamdani promised to support this raise while running for mayor, but he didn’t realize then that the move may violate state labor law — and anyway this won’t be the first minor campaign vow he’s had to sideline, nor the last.
The city faces huge coming budget woes, and the mayor needs every dime he can find for his bigger promises to his voters; he has no reason to burn money kowtowing to an establishment figure like Mulgrew.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
