Gov. Cuomo is considering exempting city cops and firefighters from his push for pension reform, the Daily News has learned.
While Cuomo inches toward an agreement with legislative leaders, leaving out the two uniformed agencies from pension reform would be a major blow to Mayor Bloomberg.
“That would be a huge carveout to the bill,” said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for Public Policy.
“The mayor has a lot riding on Police and Fire,” he added. “It’s one of the biggest parts of his problems, if not the biggest.”
Payouts to NYPD and FDNY retirees in 2011 made up 46% of the city’s $7 billion pension costs.
The governor’s pension plan initially aimed to save the city $30 billion over 30 years — though it’s unclear how much of that would come from Police and Fire.
The governor had proposed keeping in place a provision allowing cops and firefighters to retire after 22 years with half pay.
For future hires, he sought to increase employee contribution rates, disallow overtime pay from being factored into pension payouts and require cops and firefighters to be on the job for 12 years before becoming pension-eligible — instead of the current 10.
But as Cuomo tries to strike an election-year deal that can pass a reluctant Legislature, he’s raised the possibility of completely or partially exempting New York’s Finest and Bravest — though they may be asked to contribute more toward their pensions.
With worker unions hammering Cuomo’s proposal, exempting cops and smoke-eaters spares him from any emotional anti-reform ads from “hero rescue workers, ” one source said….
“The biggest problem for the state is the enormous, recurring structural budget gap starting next year and into the future,” said E.J. McMahon of the conservative-leaning Empire Center. “Cuomo clearly hopes that starting in 2021, (Democratic presidential candidate Joseph) Biden and a Democratic Congress will provide states and local government a couple of year’s worth of added stimulus. Read More
Ed McKinley
ALBANY — When the New York Constitution was reorganized nearly 100 years ago to give the governor more power over the budget process, noted there was a risk of making “the governor a czar."
M Read More
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ALBANY, N.Y. () — The Empire Center filed a against the state Department of Health on Friday.
“This case isn’t about assigning blame or embarrassing political leaders,” said Bill Hammond, the Empire Center’s Read More
The Empire Center first reported Tuesday that grants — 226 of them, totaling $46 million, to recipients selected by the governor and individual state lawmakers — seemed to still be going ahead. Read More
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“The importance of discussing this and getting the true facts out is to understand what did and didn’t happen so we can learn from it in case this happens again,” Hammond said. Read More
No doubt, the Health Department and the governor would like this report to be the final word on the subject.
But if it’s all the same with them, we’d still like a truly independent review. Read More