Here’s the real blizzard

Municipal pensions. Everyone knows what’s coming but politicians have always been willing to trade immediate labor peace for destruction down the road,when they are no longer in office to deal with the catastrophe. That day has come.

Walking his shih tzu Sam in sunny Coconut Creek, Fla., easygoing and slightly stooped Henry Licker doesn’t seem like someone who could bring down a city.

But it’s Licker and some 24,000 other NYC Transit retirees whose pension costs helped push the MTA board to vote last week for “doomsday” cuts — including slashing bus and subway lines, and forcing students who got free MetroCards to pay half-fares — to help close a nearly $400 million budget gap.

The transit agency spent $533.6 million on pension expenses last fiscal year, and is expected to pay $550.5 million this fiscal year.

Meanwhile, some 275,000 retired NYC employees — including 69,775 teachers, 44,290 cops, 17,404 firefighters and 13,664 others — cost city taxpayers $6.7 billion this year, as officials dipped into the general revenue to make up pension-investment shortfalls. That’s up from only $703 million in 2000. By 2013, taxpayers will be on the hook for $12.3 billion.

New York City pensions, which increase each year whether the stock market rises or falls, threaten to hit the city “like a tsunami,” one expert said.

Repeat this story nationwide, for every little town and big municipality, then add each states own retired employees, and you might wonder how it’s all going to be paid for. You might – your elected representatives didn’t but then, the bill’s coming due on you.

UPDATE: Judging from at least one reader’s comment, my point that this is a national crisis was not made adequately clear. Here’s a site that’s been documenting this coming disaster for years.

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