Lacking context

To the editor:

The problem with lifting, whole-cloth, an article from the Empire Center — or any of the sister organizations that are run by the same revolving group of policy wonks — aside from the issue of proper attribution, is that NOTHING that comes from them is honest. They are snobs, academic, self-referential and self-serving.

Their efforts have nothing to do with "open-government" and everything to do with pushing a conceit that the people who pick up their garbage, police their neighborhoods, teach their door-men's kids, install their bike lanes and drive those firetrucks and ambulances that wake them at night, should be poorer.

They believe that the people who keep the city running have overstepped themselves.

When they “report” on the pensions of city workers, their intent is not to offer a better understanding of how pensions are structured or serviced. They won't mention that the reason a portion of pension distributions are city- and state tax-free is that a commensurate portion of pension contributions have already been taxed by the city and state. They won't divulge that the “Christmas bonus” they talk about in one sentence is the same distribution that they talk about in the next, making it seem as if they are two separate benefits and not the single one that it is. 

They won't explain that annuitized pension payments are predicated on the age and life expectancy of the recipient and how that is directly related to the length of service of the workers that they unscrupulously mention by name.

They won't talk about work schedules, working conditions or housing prices. They aren't concerned with industrial hazards and diminished life expectancy.

But, it's all to be expected. After all, that's the job their country-club sugar daddies demand of them. Their garbage “reporting” shouldn't be repeated here, though.

Josh Lomask