Searching for inspiration on how New York City could dig itself out of its worst budget crisis since the 1970s, we came across Ed Rendell’s 1993 Wriston Lecture to the Manhattan Institute. He was speaking of the situation for city employees when he took office as mayor of Philadelphia: “Fourteen paid holidays, including some you have probably never heard of, like we were the only place on earth to get both President’s Day and Lincoln’s Birthday. We got Election Day. We got Flag Day. I mean, we got them all. Good Friday. I mean, we got them all.” Mr. Rendell took on the problem: “Well, we went after all of that. We reduced the paid holidays from 14 to 10. Last Tuesday was the first Election Day that hasn’t been a paid holiday in over a half century in the City of Philadelphia. Tomorrow we will be celebrating our last paid Veteran’s Day holiday. And Flag Day and President’s Day went last year,” he said. “And those aren’t just productivity issues, because think about a city work force. A city work force, most of it, about 40% of it works on holidays. Police have to work, fire have to work, prison guards have to work, water people have to work. So many of our people have to work on holidays, that when you designate something as a holiday, like Flag Day, everybody gets overtime. We saved about $2.7 million on each holiday we eliminated in overtime. Stunning, absolutely stunning results. But it is true.”

Curious, we surfed over to the New York City Web site. Mr. Rendell, it turns out, was wrong. Philadelphia wasn’t “the only place on earth” to give city employees both President’s Day and Lincoln’s Birthday off. The City of New York gives its workers both Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington Birthday — not to mention Election Day as a paid holiday, for a total of 12 paid holidays for city employees. The federal government, by contrast, not known as a particularly stingy employer, offers 10 paid holidays. For a private-sector comparison, consider that most of the city’s big financial industry employers have a company calendar in line with that of the New York Stock Exchange, which in 2003 will observe just nine holidays. Bringing the city’s number in line with Philadelphia and federal standards by creating one general President’s Day holiday and making Election Day a regular city work day would, if you project out Philadelphia’s savings based on the relative size of the New York City workforce and adjust for 10 years of inflation, save the city of New York $108 million. That’s a sum worth remembering next Election Day, when you’re headed to work but most of the city’s employees either have the day off or are earning overtime pay. And worth considering when you’re deciding whether to reelect the city politicians who are raising your taxes because they say the city government is too lean to cut.