Mayor Bloomberg is bristling at comparisons to Governor Cuomo.
A reporter asked the mayor to evaluate Cuomo’s record so far — which was so successful that he’s being touted as a presidential candidate in 2016.
The reporter, from WNYC, astutely prefaced his question by noting that the two executives have had their differences.
“What have we disagreed on?” Bloomberg wondered aloud. “Does anybody remember?”
“Revenue sharing,” NY1’s Josh Robin yelled out.
As the mayor began to acknowledge that prior spat (“There’s no question that I disagreed,”), Robin called out another: “LIFO,” he said, referring to the Last In, First Out teacher seniority rule.
That second issue, is crucial.
“The governor came out and said explicitly that he was in favor of LIFO,” Bloomberg said. “He’s not going to get everything done overnight.”
But Cuomo’s role in not changing those teacher seniority rules are vitally important, when comparing City Hall to the Capitol, these days.
A New York Post editorial this morning harpooned Bloomberg, saying his “failings” are “so glaring” because “they have diminished City Hall, politically, relative to Albany…Bloomberg has been about nothing but theater this year, to no discernible good effect,” they wrote.
The editorial largely focuses on the concessions Cuomo won from the union representing state workers, and compared it to what they said were modest concessions Bloomberg got from the New York City teacher’s union.
But as the New York Post‘s own City Hall bureau chief noted, “Bloomberg lost the battle of the budget in March when Albany wouldn’t give him a pass to layoff teachers without regard to seniority.”
