Many if not most New York City teachers will continue receiving automatic longevity pay increases despite Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s announcement today that he will “eliminate raises” for them in the next budget.

In fact, as illustrated in the following chart (provided by the mayor’s press office), city teachers are eligible for annual pay hikes — above and beyond any base pay increase — during nine of their first 10 consecutive years, and 14 of their first 22 consecutive years.  For example, quite apart from any base salary increase, a rookie teacher entering his or her second year is entitled to a longevity increase of 6.4 percent.  An eighth-year teacher receives an increase of 11.6 percent, and a teacher moving into his or her twentieth consecutive year receives an increase of 11.5 percent.  (Go here for more details on the city’s teacher pay schedule.)

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Nicole dissects Mayor Bloomberg’s preliminary 2011 budget in a Post op-ed today.   Her key point: while news coverage of what the Times headlined as a “grim budget” has concentrated heavily on the mayor’s proposed cuts, Bloomberg actually is relying much more heavily on a $2.9 billion revenue surplus created by the latest Wall Street bubble (call it the post-bubble bubble) to close a projected $4.1 billion budget gap.

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New York City’s independent budget office (IBO) thinks that Gotham will take in $1.3 billion more than the mayor is projecting over the rest of this fiscal year and next. The extra cash will alleviate some pressure on the city’s projected $4.1 billion deficit (itself already revised downward once from $4.9 billion by the mayor’s own budget office). (more…)

Fresh from a key court victory, Albany’s Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), via its subsidiary, the Brooklyn Arena Local Development Corporation (BALDC), yesterday approved the issuance of up to $800 million in bonds for the construction of the Atlantic Yards basketball venue, sponsored by developer Bruce Ratner.

What is state and city taxpayers’ obligation here? (more…)

My op-ed in today’s New York Post explains why—and how—the Paterson administration should declare a fiscal emergency and seek to impose a three-year freeze on all state and local employee salaries in New York.  This would save taxpayers statewide at least $2 billion next year alone, I estimate.

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Democratic mayoral challenger Bill Thompson said something good yesterday: “Can you afford 4 percent [raises for teachers] in the current environment? Probably not,” he told the Daily News editorial board.

Thompson’s right. The education payroll, not including benefits, is already $10.1 billion, up from $7.1 billion in fiscal year 2003, Mayor Bloomberg’s first budget. This 42 percent increase outpaces inflation by 22 percentage points. (more…)

An editorial in today’s Daily News calls for “the world’s richest bank” — that would be Goldman Sachs — to “give the taxpayer a bonus” and pass on $321 million that the bank is rightfully set to collect from New York City and State government.

Goldman should hold its ground vs. misplaced populist pressure — including by our billionaire mayor — and take its money. (more…)

Attention New York: on the eve (roughly) of the one-year anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ collapse, a new report from J.P.Morgan in London opines that because of the effects of eight likely financial-regulatory changes worldwide, “what is certain … is that global [investment] banking profitability will decline,” not just temporarily but structurally (that is, even after the recession is over).   (more…)

Today’s WSJ reports that “a stream of hedge-fund managers … are quitting the U.K.” as the nation levies a new tax rate of 51 percent on people earning more than $250,000 annually, starting next April.

“We have reached a tipping point, in terms of hostility to the U.K. tax system,” said lawyer Richard Jordan, who estimates that he spends 40 percent of his time advising clients interested in leaving Britain for a friendlier tax clime.

It’s too bad that New York City and State, too, along with the federal government, are all raising taxes or planning to, possibly bringing our top rate to 57 percent. Otherwise, we could compete on this issue.

Nicole has an op-ed in today’s Post on the generous contract arbitration award to transit workers.   Her lead sums it up nicely:

THE MTA just managed to give away the store in the new Transport Workers Union contract — and they couldn’t have done it without Albany and City Hall.

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