As of 6:30 p.m. this evening, it is official: 100,000 New York State workers will be getting an extra day off every week, unpaid. Legislators agreed today not to block Governor Paterson's plan.

The AP reports that only health care and public safety workers will be spared. Everyone else gets furloughed, beginning May 17. The other alternative was a total shutdown of the state government.

Public employees' unions have vowed to fight the furlough in court. Undoubtedly their union contracts specify that furloughs are always off the table. The problem is that in bankruptcies, union contracts become null and void. The state is essentially bankrupt.

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Commentary

This is actually a decent compromise. Imagine if the private sector had worked this way. Instead of laying mass numbers of people off, companies cut working hours and pay. Fewer movie tickets would be sold to those lucky enough to still have jobs, but then again, fewer families would be getting thrown out of their homes. Why should all the belt tightening fall on just a few shoulders?

But it's still galling that this is not the fault of workers, yet workers get the shaft once again. The people who caused this are still buying new yachts with the $700 billion we gave them. Where the hell is Andy Cuomo? He has enormous power as the New York State Attorney General, power to regulate Wall Street, to root out the massive fraud and recover some of the money. Spitzer did that. (I know some cynic out there is thinking, "And look where it got him." To the person thinking that -- my hat is off to you. You are correct. Still...) Is Cuomo playing it safe because he needs that Wall Street cash to become the next governor?

Who deserves blame? Not the state workers. They're not the ones who wrote the zany terms of the bonds. They're not the ones who froze up the credit market and destroyed so many businesses, so many lives.

I say we go after the yacht money.