Bloomberg's Final "Balanced Budget" Is A Sham

Smoke and mirrors, designed to set up unfavorable press coverage/set the terms of the debate for the incoming deBlasio administration. 

It's a gift, in the sense that the Trojan Horse was a gift, or a time bomb left on your doorstep is a gift.

Is Bloomberg's Balanced Budget a Gift or a Curse for De Blasio?

"One of the fun and frustrating things about government budget numbers is that they're endlessly spinnable. Last week, Mayor Bloomberg announced that he was leaving his successor a balanced budget. Critics pounced: It's easy to balance a budget when you let all the union contracts expire! Bloomberg parried: If the next mayor wants to grant retroactive raises, fine, let him knock the budget out of balance. Critics: There's no money set aside for future raises, either! Bloomberg: Sure there is — after three years of zero increase in base pay, they could have a generous 1.25 percent boost."

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/11/bloombergs-balanced-budget-and-de-blasio.html

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