Gov. Cuomo must lead to fire incompetent teachers, reform pensions

This is the year when there will be no eleventh-hour rescue from the loss of teachers, firefighters, child welfare aides and virtually every other category of municipal worker. This is the year the money runs out. That was the message of Mayor Bloomberg's budget presentation yesterday. Washington is broke. Albany is broker. And the city is $1.6 billion short of cash. The only question is how to minimize the damage to the quality of life. Although the facts are inescapably clear, New York's politico-labor establishment remains stubbornly and deliberately in denial. With the exception of Gov. Cuomo, not one of...