A bill that would have clarified that taxpayer-funded pensions are public information was not approved by the state Senate, despite getting passed in the Assembly.

E.J. McMahon, senior fellow for the Empire Center For New York State Police, ripped the GOP-led Senate for failing to address the bill.

“They could have given people immediate, renewed access to something that is improperly being denied to the public—and they obviously don’t care,” McMahon said. “They are obviously standing foursquare for secrecy here.”

The Assembly passed the bill 137-1, with only Assemblyman Donald Miller, R-Cicero, Onondaga County, voting against it.

The bill comes after a state appeals court ruled last October that a New York City police pension fund was off limits to the public. The court ruling led other pension funds, including the state Teachers’ Retirement System, to not release the names of public employees receiving pensions. The Empire Center is continuing to sue, but the court case has yet to be resolved.

Lawmakers have sought to clarify the law to ensure that the names of pension recipients and the amount they receive are public, but the Senate didn’t move on the bill.

McMahon suspected that union opposition played a role in the Senate’s reluctance. Current law excludes pension beneficiaries – spouses of pension recipients – from having their names released. But the exemption doesn’t apply to pension recipients’ names, supporters of the change have said.

The bill, as a result, seeks to better define “retiree” and “beneficiary” as it relates to the state’s Freedom of Information law.

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