Tuesday will be the 10th anniversary of a state legislative landmark: the creation of a new public-pension “tier” reining in the explosive cost of state- and local-government retirement benefits in New York.
While Tier 6 wasn’t the “bold and transformational” breakthrough touted by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2012, it was a solid net positive for taxpayers, building on incremental changes in the Tier 5 pension reform enacted two years earlier. (Tiers 5 and 6 cover most occupations other than police and firefighters, who belong to other pension plans modified in different ways by the same legislation.)
The reforms have saved billions of taxpayer dollars for the state and local governments over the past decade — including $1 billion this year alone — plus significant added savings for New York City’s separate pension systems.
Read the full op-ed here.
About the Author
You may also like
Want to Save the Planet? Where’s Your Union Card?
New York state officials this week took their most serious step yet to limit the state’s greenhouse-gas emissions. But they also showed they are more serious about taking care of one of the Read More
Nassau should post labor contracts on its website so taxpayers aren’t left in the dark
Nassau County taxpayers face what could be a $109 million bill. When will they be allowed to see the details? Read More
Big Labor’s next target: Grad schools
Christakis remarked on the website that graduate students, now moving to unionize at the school, are not ordinary worker. Read More
And Now the Union Would Like a Word in Private
The onboarding process has become a key battleground for the country’s government unions. Read More
State senators to get a harsh reality check as their own workers unionize
Labor leaders were giddy when a group of state Senate employees last month announced their intent to unionize. Read More
Albany’s latest gift to the teachers union will shackle NYC schools — and their budgets
The Legislature last week put a new spin on the debate over “mayoral control” of New York City’s schools by shackling the Big Apple with a costly class-size mandate. Read More
Hochul’s first budget rewards unions at taxpayers’ expense — and sets the state on the road to insolvency
New Yorkers are aghast that the Buffalo Bills stadium deal, which will fill the pockets of a wealthy NFL team owner with their tax dollars, is in the state budget the Legislature just adopted. Read More
The Fear Behind City Union’s Strike Threat
Polling this month showed that two-thirds of the nation’s teachers would prefer to stay out of the classroom this fall, and teachers unions across America are poised to keep schools from reopening. The unions say the safety of their members is their top concern, yet, truth is, their bottom lines are just as critical.
That’s because the pandemic represents their biggest financial threat since teachers won the right to stop paying them. Read More