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MINEOLA -- Mandate relief priorities to help local governments and school districts cope with failing revenues and a proposed tax cap were outlined today in state Senate testimony by E.J. McMahon, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center for New York State Policy.

A copy of McMahon's testimony can be viewed online here, or downloaded here.

Testifying at a joint hearing of the Senate Local Government Committee and Senate Education Committee, McMahon commended the Senate for passing Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposed 2 percent property tax cap last month.

"In years to come, the Jan. 31 vote may be seen as a turning point, a historic first step towards lasting relief for New York's Taxpayers," he said.

However, McMahon said school districts and local officials had also raised "legitimate concerns about the impact of the cap."

"For school districts and municipalities, in particular, the budgetary cost center is employee compensation," he said.  "Therefore, you need to give schools and local governments more tools to control personnel costs." 

Mandate relief priorities outlined in McMahon's testimony included the following:

• Impose a statewide freeze on public-sector salaries.
• Repeal the Triborough amendment.
• Repeal the provision of the Tier 5 pension bill that permanently disallowed any change in retiree health benefits unless negotiated with the union representing active teachers.
• Repeal compulsory binding arbitration of contracts for police and firefighters.
• Establish a mandatory minimum level of employee contributions to health-insurance premiums.
• Enact real, fundamental pension reform -- putting newly hired civilian employees in defined-contribution annuity plans.
• Amend the Taylor Law to prohibit collective bargaining of retiree health benefits, just as it prohibits bargaining of pension benefits.

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