By Nina Mandell
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Mayor Michael Bloomberg renewed his criticism of the state legislature Thursday for authorizing unjustifiably generous pensions, saying the practice was pushing the city to the edge of a financial cliff, the New York Post reported.
"This has just got to stop," the mayor said at a meeting with Gov. David Paterson and other state officials that had been called to discuss the city's economic situation.
"A lot of you read stories in the newspaper about somebody who is a professional boxer or who runs a triathlon and they are out on a disability pension," the mayor was quoted as saying. "A lot of those things — I don't know about those two in particular — come out of these presumption bills, which sounds like they're perfectly reasonable.
"The bottom line is, we cannot afford to automatically assume that anybody who is sick was made sick by their government service," Bloomberg reportedly said.
A bill enacted by the Legislature specifies that any firefighters with heart or lung disease, cancer, stroke or any 9/11-related ailment must receive pensions calculated on the assumption that the ailment is job-related.
"We will, at some point, literally get to the cliff and not be able to go over it and not be able to go any further," the mayor reportedly said.
According to the Post, the city will pay $7.5 billion in pension payments this year, which represents a 13 percent increase over last year.
