McMahon Discusses Municipal Bankruptcy

McMahon is the biggest partisan snake-oil salesman in Albany. He is QUITE LITERALLY very handsomely paid by the Koch Brothers and their ilk to peddle their empty ideas. It astounds me that the press gives this man so much attention.

Let’s look at two of the issues Edmund brings up – Triborough and binding arbitration. Edmund paints them both as huge cost drivers. However, in the case of Triborough, Edmund always neglects to note that Triborough is a double-edged sword. Employers can also utilize Triborough to stall negotiating new contracts for extended periods of time to their advantage. Just ask the state correction officers, who went TEN YEARS without a contract. Ask them if it helped or hurt them.

Additionally, Edmund is well aware that even if the Triborough amendment were to be completely repealed tomorrow, little would change, because bargaining would then take place under the findings of the Triborough decision, which also basically states that any working conditions that are considered mandatory bargaining items must remain in full force in between contracts.

Finally on Triborough, Edmund takes the tack that teachers, amongst other unions, “get raises” that repealing Triborough would prevent. It’s a completely obtuse argument. Teachers, like almost every other public servant, get cost of living wages and get steps based on time and experience. Does he think those steps will simply and magically go away if Triborough is repealed? Not likely. Why? Because without steps, a teacher on the job for 30 years and a brand new teacher would both make the EXACT SAME SALARY, and it is completely unrealistic to think that you can simply pay both the same amount.

And as always, Edmund implies Triborough is the largest “mandated” cost driver, when many district administrators will tell you that their largest cost drivers are generally mandates for special education and ever increasing health care premiums, which even if the districts shift more of the costs to the employees on will STILL see ridiculous increases each and every year due to the for profit nature of our national health care system.

Binding arbitration for public safety officials is also another red herring for Edmund. He likes to attack it, but he neglects to ever really point out that in binding arbitration, both sides get to present their cases, and the arbitrator – who is completely independent – has to take those facts into account to arrive at a decision. In other words, if employers can prove their case that they CAN’T afford something based on the facts and fiscal realities involved, no arbitrator is going to award it. At the same time, no arbitrator is simply going to let employers walk all over their employees for no good reason either. IMO, arbitration, due to it’s independent nature, is one of the FAIREST ways to settle contract disputes, especially since public employees in this state cannot strike. If anything, binding arbitration should be EXPANDED to cover all civil servants, and not ended.

Of course, Edmund counts on those with clinical cases of cognitive dissonance to listen to his repeated stories of doom and gloom and sally forth out to the echo chamber to amplify his false message. Let’s look at Edmunds real track record since leaving government and joining the Koch Center, er, I mean, Empire Center. He’s predicted practically every level of government would catastrophically fail year after year, and based on his predictions, the entire state across all levels of government should be literally bankrupt by now, the various pension trust funds throughout the state should have a trust fund balance of $0, and who knows what else. And he’s been wrong on ALL of such doom-and-gloom predictions. If I was wrong as often as Edmund, I would have been fired long ago. But luckily for Edmund, he’s not paid to be right or wrong – he’s paid to sell his snake oil to the unwashed masses.