New York Post columnist blasts top-earning public officials not taking a pay cut
Miranda Devine, New York Post columnist, says top public officials should cut their pay amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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New York Post columnist Miranda Devine argued on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday that top-earning officials in New York should “share in the pain and hardship that people have suffered from losing their jobs and their businesses” and take a pay cut amid the economic fallout triggered by the new coronavirus.
“They just think their protected jobs and lifestyles are going to go on forever and they can't,” Devine said on Wednesday.
“It’s not as if they do a good job anyway and the state capital has been basically shuttered for the last two months so they haven't been doing anything. They’ve been on a glorious paid holiday.”
In a new op-ed, the New York Post editorial board wrote, "Some 2 million workers across New York have lost their jobs; countless businesses are dying and even top executives have been taking pay cuts.
“New York is looking at unprecedented fiscal bleeding — quite possibly worse than the 1970s crisis. Decision-makers, especially ones like the legislators who aren’t even making any decisions, ought to shoulder some of the burden."
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When New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio was asked by a reporter during a news briefing on Tuesday if he and the other high paid members of the administration will be taking pay cuts amid the pandemic he said, “[There are] no plans for pay cuts for any New York City employees right now, whether its City Hall or any place else.”
“These people, they don't share in the real economy. They are protected from it,” Devine said, adding that: “They live in la la land.”
She went on to say that “They have their protected jobs and what they don't really understand, they make these decisions from their ivory towers that have drastic consequences on other people who live in the unprotected economy with unprotected jobs and I think it's about time that they feel the pain, that they feel what everyone else does, the reality.”
Host Brian Kilmeade noted some of the salaries for public officials in New York including de Blasio, who makes $258,000 a year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo who makes $225,000 and the Chancellor of The City University of New York (CUNY), who makes $670,000 a year.
“If you’re earning $600,000 a year and Governor Cuomo is saying in April in the budget that everything is going to have to take a 20 percent slash, well then someone on $600,000 a year who is really not doing that much should be taking a 20 percent cut at least,” Devine said. “There are some arguments that it should be 50 percent.”
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Earlier this month, Cuomo said New York needs $61 billion in federal support “or we will wind up aggravating the situation” by forcing cuts to local governments, schools and even hospitals.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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