As the clock ticks down towards Thursday’s adjournment of the state Legislature, Senate Republican leaders apparently are blocking a vote on a bill designed to ensure that the names of New York’s public pension recipients are (once again) unequivocally treated as public information.
As recounted here last week, the bill sailed through the Assembly on a 137-1 vote and was introduced in the upper house by Sen. Martin Golden, R-Brooklyn, himself the recipient of a $29,000-a-year NYPD disability pension. The bill was referred to the Committee on Investigations and Government Operations, chaired by Sen. Carl Marcellino– and there, as of this morning, it remains. Golden publicly has expressed support for the measure; assuming he really means it, the bill’s failure to move must reflect opposition from Marcellino, or Majority Leader Dean Skelos, or other members of the Senate Rules Committee, which has the power to dislodge the legislation and bring it to a vote on the floor.
So what’s the real story? Perhaps someone in the news media will ask the Senate Republicans for an explanation.
Meanwhile, using last year’s Appellate Division ruling in a New York City Police Pension Fund case, all of the city’s pension funds and the large New york State Teachers’ Retirement System have begun treating the names of pension recipients as a secret.
You may also like
Four Problems with a Statewide Pied-à-Terre Tax
Soon after Governor Hochul floated the idea of a "pied-à-terre" tax in New York City, Albany Sen. Patricia Fahy proposed to expand the concept to the rest of the state.
As with H Read More
Albany Should Listen to Jamie Dimon
In his annual message to shareholders, JP Morgan Chase's chief executive, Jamie Dimon, offered a timely and pointed warning for New York policymakers.
It's worth , with emphasis add Read More
Mamdani Gets an Important Tax Fact Wrong
At a hearing in Albany last week, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani lobbied state lawmakers to help him balance the city's finances with a two-percentage-point hike in the city's income tax on people making over $1 million Read More
Parsing the Impact of Mamdani’s Tax Hike Plans
The front-running candidate for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has said he can finance his costly campaign promises – including free buses and universal child care – by taxing only a sliver of the city's residents Read More
Why New York’s Health Premiums Keep Going Up
New Yorkers continue to face some of the costliest health premiums in the U.S., and the insurance industry's recently finalized rate applications shed light on why that is.
In summa Read More
Two Dozen School Districts Are Returning to the Polls for Budget Revotes
Voters in 24 New York school districts return to the polls on Tuesday for school budget revotes. Last month, voters in 96 percent of school districts outside New York City conducting votes approved their school budgets for the upcoming year.
The 683 sc Read More
Even With Federal Cuts, New York’s Health Funding Would Remain High
New York's health-care industry stands to lose billions of dollars in federal funding under the major budget bill being debated in Washington – a rare and jarring turn of events for a sector accustomed to steadily increas Read More
Highlights of Albany’s Bloated and Belated Budget
The state Legislature approved the last of nine budget bills Thursday evening, 38 days after the start of the fiscal year. Here are some highlights of the fiscal impact of final spending plan:
Top lines
Read More