The Nation  Bloomberg Warns de Blasio About 'Labor-Electoral'
Complex  Bill de Blasio  Bill de Blasio at a rally to save Long
Island College Hospital. (Creative Commons)   Complexes are not
good. Whether Oedipus or Sybil, prison-industrial or military-
industrial, you want to avoid complexes and think twice about
dating people who have them. Unfortunately, according to our
outgoing mayor, New York City has got one—namely “a labor-
electoral complex that is undermining our collective future.”
In a final major speech delivered to a friendly crowd at the
Economic Club on Wednesday, Mayor Bloomberg said the biggest
threat now to the survival of the city is the rising cost of
employee pensions and healthcare. “Here in New York City, over
the past 12 years our pension costs have gone from $1.5 billion
to $8.2 billion,” he said. “That’s almost a 500 percent increase
– when inflation totaled only 35 percent.” Healthcare costs for
employees and retirees were also soarding. Together, the mayor
said, those benefits costs