Feed

State of the City

By David Freedlander 1/12/12 1:32pm

State of the City

mayor-bloomberg-age-199x300

Bloomberg Proposes Boost In Minimum Wage

In his State of the City address today, Mayor Bloomberg will propose something akin to splitting the baby on the living wage fight when he comes down in favor of a boost in the minimum wage.

“The genius of the free market is not always perfect,” Bloomberg said, according to the prepared text of his speech. “Two of our neighbors – Connecticut and Massachusetts – have raised their minimum wage above the Federal standard to address higher costs of living. And so while we would prefer the Federal government to act to keep us competitive, this year, we will join Speaker Shelly Silver in pushing for a responsible raise in the minimum wage.” Read More

By David Freedlander 1/12/12 1:08pm

State of the City

Mayor Bloomberg (Photo: Wikimedia)

In State of the City, Bloomberg Takes Fight to Teacher's Union

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s press office has emailed out an early version of his upcoming State of the City address, and in it the administration has unveiled several new initiatives to boost the city’s schools, several of which are likely to antagonize the United Federation of Teachers.

In the speech, the Mayor will propose instituting a merit pay system, something that teacher’s unions have traditionally fought against.

“Historically, teachers unions around the country have opposed rewarding great teaching through merit pay but more and more teachers are asking why, and we’ve seen how well this can work in other cities,” the Mayor acknowledged. “A recent article in the New York Times explained how cities with merit pay have found that rewarding great teachers keeps them from leaving the system. Again, our teachers deserve that. And so do our children.” Read More