I don't know if I'm imposing on your thread but, as I read the story posted about how employees "gave up" a three percent wage increase and some benefits to keep their fellow employees working it made me disgusted to see how ****ed up our state really has become.
Our illustrious State senator, Antoinette Thompson is proposing that workers get "more" benefits in light of the impending state implosion.
http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/605091.html
Now this idea may be a reasonable idea if the state had historic surpluses, and had problems recruiting employees but that's not the case.
..and we wonder why we (NYS) falls further into the abyss.