(Reuters) - Saying that public employees have become scapegoats for the fiscal problems of U.S. states, New York City Comptroller John Liu plans to release a report on Wednesday that compares public sector salaries with those in the private sector.
Speaking at a National Institute on Retirement Security conference on Tuesday, Liu said he will "battle rhetoric with research," with a further series of reports on public employee compensation and pensions.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has suggested the state close its budget gap with cuts to public employees' pay and benefits. He also has called for the end of public employees' collective bargaining rights, which has sparked demonstrations at the state capital.
"I'm happy about what they said in Wisconsin because I think it lays bare the ideological underpinnings of what's really happening," Liu said.
"A year ago it was about big corporate bonuses," said Liu about taxpayers' anger over the financial crisis and subsequent economic recession. "Now there seems to be a great deal of vitriol directed at public employees."
Liu, who manages the city's $113 billion pension funds, said eliminating collective bargaining "is rather extreme."
"Chipping away at the retirement security of public employees won't enhance the retirement security of private sector employees," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.
No, it sure won't - but it WILL enhance the retirement security of the wealthiest 400 Americans (Gates, Broad, Bloomberg, Buffet, Koch Brothers, et al.), which is really what all this is about anyway.
Once again, John Liu is proving that some Democrats actually still represent working and middle class Americans as opposed to the corporate oligarch class so many Dems (think Obama) represent.
Compare Liu to the former Democratic darlings of the education reform movement - Adrian Fenty and Michelle Rhee - both of whom have come out in support of Scott Walker's union-busting proposals, and Liu just looks better and better to me for 2013 in NYC.
Wouldn't it be nice to have a politician elected who doesn't, you know, reflexively bash teachers and union members to make his/her corporate overlords happy?
I agree, RBE - and I'm the one who sent you the link last night - the more I see of John Liu, the better I like him. He seems to be driven to do HIS JOB and to stand up for the facts - I don't think he's necessarily pro-union or anti-corporate, just that he appears to do his job based on the legalities and what makes sense. If he keeps going the way he's going, yeah, for sure, LIU IN 2013! (Actually, I'd like to see Bloomberg TRY for a fourth term and really get walloped by Liu.)
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