Thursday, March 29, 2012

Council suddenly grows a pair

From the Daily News:

The City Council passed a controversial “prevailing wage” bill Wednesday — setting the stage for a clash with Mayor Bloomberg, who has vowed a veto.

The measure would raise pay for hundreds of service workers at some 41 buildings that receive city tax breaks. The salary bump would be determined by the City Controller’s prevailing-wage scale.

Repairmen and cleaners at major office buildings whose pay is now governed under that scale earn $24.74 per hour, or roughly $50,000 a year. Workers covered under the bill would get a pay increase of 35% to 45%, officials said.

The bill passed 45 to 4, an indication the Council most likely has the two-thirds vote needed to override a mayoral veto.

The Council successfully overrode mayoral vetoes on two other bills Wednesday. The first was a measure to ban the Sanitation Department from slapping fluorescent stickers on cars parked in violation of alternate-side and other parking laws designed to clear the way for street sweeping.

The second was a bill to require traffic agents to rip up muni-meter tickets if a motorist produces a paid receipt within five minutes of the summons.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

1/3 to 1/2 seems like a pretty big raise on 50k.... why not, not their money.

Anonymous said...

What's Quinn's angle here? Is she trying to make (very)token amends for rebuffing the living wage bill?

Now I guess she can claim that she looks out for the "little guy." We know the truth, that she kowtows to Bloomy and his Manhattan Institute golf buddies.

Anonymous said...

I think the strategy here is obvious:

1. She didn't commit Gifford Miller's error and publicly clash with Bloomberg. Poor Miller went in oblivion after that.

2. But in the lame duck months of Bloomberg's 12 years, she can craft a plausible record of opposition to Bloomberg on issues like this. Especially as it doesn't create a new tax or fee on most potential voters.

Anonymous said...

Ripping up those tickets won't help: they're submitted electronically as they're written, as I understand it. So you'll get a fine on top of the fine...

Lez be Friends said...

Quinn always had a pair.
She's bullish on girls.