As I explain in my column in the Daily Gazette (Tuesday), the state Legislature accomplished a few things during the rush of budget bills that received little media attention.

It virtually locked non-union contractors out of big public works construction jobs, and it required local school boards to provide the same health insurance to retired employees as to active employees.

One was a sop to the construction trade unions, the other was a sop to the teachers’ unions. Both passed unanimously, without debate.

So please don’t take too seriously the pledges you hear from your local senator or assemblyman about holding down your property taxes. When it comes to voting on things that directly affect your property taxes, like public construction and school health insurance, your local senator and your local assemblyman dependably vote against you.

The limiting of public construction jobs to the trade unions, by the way, was disguised as reform of the much-maligned Wicks Law, in case you might have heard about that.

The school health insurance bill wasn’t disguised as anything. It just slid through with the rest of the budget package.

There were no hearings, no debates, no public notice, no nothing. Just the usual sleight of hand. The usual waving one hand in the air for distraction while dealing from the bottom of the deck with the other.