Gov. Spitzer has signed an executive order that will allow two of New York’s most powerful public employee unions to organize groups of government-subsidized in-home day-care workers.

E.J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center, dissected the costs and implications of this move in a New York Post op-ed article. An excerpt:

WITH the stroke of a pen, Gov. Spitzer has cleared the way for 60,000 home-based day-care providers to join New York’s growing quasi-public-sector labor cartel. And in the process, on the heels of a first-year budget that increases spending at more than three times the inflation rate, he has further undermined his ability to control the cost of government in the Empire State.

Spitzer late last week signed an executive order that will allow the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) to move ahead with their plans to organize day-care providers in New York City and the rest of the state, respectively.

The providers in question are independent contractors, subsidized by government grants but hired by parents. Some are licensed day-care operators; others are friends or relatives of the low-income working moms whose kids they watch. In recent years, unions across the country have been eying these informal caregiver networks as a new frontier for building membership rolls and political influence.

Spitzer’s administration unveiled the day-care deal Friday as part of a “Labor History Month” celebration. But it made no mention of the potentially costly implications of the new chapter that the governor has just opened in that history.

Unlike a bill vetoed by Gov. Pataki last year, Spitzer’s order doesn’t formally redefine the subsidized day-care providers as state employees. For all practical purposes, however, the financial and political effects will be virtually the same.

Unions representing the daycare providers will be authorized to reach agreements with the state that go beyond pay, benefits and working conditions to include “the stability, funding and operation of child-care programs.” In other words, on top of their established budget-busting legislative priorities, the UFT and CSEA will have an incentive to push for expanding New York day-care subsidies, which already consume $900 million in federal, state and local funds.

Spitzer’s executive order expresses concern over pay and benefit levels for day care providers — but as McMahon notes, in the final analysis “it seems clear that Spitzer’s initiative isn’t really about the providers or their clients. It’s about unions.”

Go here to listen to McMahon’s interview on the topic with Oswego public radio state WRVO.

For the unions’ perspective on what they are calling a “milestone” victory, see the UFT and CSEA web pages.