Mayor’s ‘Balanced’ Budget Still Tilted Against Fair Pay Hikes, Unions Say

Mayor Bloomberg’s Nov. 21 announcement that he had been able to wipe out a $2-billion hole in the spending plan he will bequeath to Bill de Blasio but that this would not permit an improvement on a miserly wage offer to the city’s unions was lambasted by United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew as “a classic budget game.”

“He lowballs revenue projections, overestimates expenses, and then claims poverty,” Mr. Mulgrew said in a statement. “When the real numbers come in, with more revenue and fewer expenses than he claimed he was expecting, he takes credit for the magical appearance of a surplus.”