Former Indianapolis Mayor to New York City Workers: Drop Dead!
Former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith was known as a tightwad when he was running Hoosiertown (or whatever Indy's nickname other than Indy is). That's exactly what you want in a public servant. His cost-cutting ways even got written up in Reason magazine back in the day.
Lately, Goldsmith has been hanging his hat in the Mayor Mike Bloomberg regime in New York City, which is facing a whopping $3.3 billion deficit next fiscal year. Goldsmith is about to lower the boom on "thousands" of city workers, a mass firing that will save The Big Apple (now, that's a nickname) around $1.5 billion simoleons. Fear not, fans of public-sector employees: Fun City (another great nickname!) has over 300,000 such workers, so Goldsmith could cut 10 percent and you wouldn't even notice the service getting shittier at, say, The Mayor's Office of Industrial and Manufacturing Businesses.
Something to think about when governments start complaining that they've already cut spending to the bone and sold off both kidneys along with one cornea just to get by: Gotham (yet another nickname!) has a projected deficit that comes to just 5 percent of a $65 billion budget. How many of you couldn't cut 5 freaking percent out of your annual budget?
Hat tip: Alan Vanneman, World's Greatest Everything.
Bonus Goldsmith! Hizzformeroner makes an appearance in the "Privatize It!" episode of Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey, where he explains how competitive bidding saved money and upped the level of city services—while also giving current city workers a real shot at making better wages. Goldsmith shows up around the 6.30 mark below.