The state Senate has yet to act on legislation that would make clear that taxpayer-funded pensions are public information.

The Assembly recently passed the bill 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 retired public employees receiving pensions.

Lawmakers have sought to clarify the law to ensure that the names of pension recipients and the amount they receive are public.

But the measure appears stalled in the Senate. The legislative session ends Thursday.

“The committee is not scheduled to meet again, and I haven’t had any requests to move the bill,” said Sen. Carl Marcellino, R-Nassau County, who heads the Senate Investigations Committee where the bill sits.

Scott Reif, a spokesman for Senate Republicans, said the bill is still under review.

The Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscally conservative group based in Albany, has sued for the police pension information for its searchable online database of salaries and pensions, at www.SeeThroughNY.net.

But its request was rejected by the pension fund and upheld in both state Supreme Court and the appellate division.

A new law would clarify that the pension data should be public, said E.J. McMahon, the group’s senior fellow.

“The sooner it’s clarified the sooner we have information that is being denied to us,” he said….

Read article here