Last week, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down a desperately needed overhaul of that state’s massively underfunded pension system. The case has chilling implications for Albany as well as Springfield — and for New York City as well as Chicago. Read More
Many municipalities in New York have begrudgingly borrowed to pay off annual pension costs in recent years, but they are doing less of it, state records show. Read More
Following a court ruling ordering the New York City Fire Pension Fund to release the names and pension amounts of retirees, the Uniformed Fire Officers Association is vowing to continue efforts to keep the records from being made public. Read More
Calling the ruling "another win for transparency," a state judge has ordered the New York City Fire Pension Fund to release the names and pension amounts of its retirees to a fiscal watchdog group. Read More
A legislative proposal aimed at the heart of Albany power seeks to address the increase in six-figure public pensions by barring the use of overtime pay and unused sick time and vacation days in their calculation. Read More
New Yorkers are used to seeing the leaders of various municipal employees unions get hot and bothered about relatively trivial issues. It's who they are; it's what they do. Being anything but shrinking violets, these outspoken union bosses like the attention their outrage generates. And being seen as standing up in defense of their supposedly put-upon members always helps when they run for re-election. But even understanding that phenomenon, we're at a loss to understand the righteous indignation of several fire unions over a ruling that the New York City Fire Pension Fund must make public the name and pension amounts received by retirees. Read More
After five years of lawsuits and appeals, a Brooklyn judge has definitively upheld the right to know who’s drawing public pensions and how much they’re being paid. Read More
The names of former New York City firefighters and the public pensions they are receiving must be released under the state Freedom of Information Law to a group that is building a database of public employee pensioners, a judge ruled. Read More