New York’s public pension funds will have the green light to significantly increase their asset allocations to “alternative investments,” such as private equity and hedge funds, under a bill that looks greased for passage in both houses of the state Legislature. Read More
In the state's largest (but not only) public pension plan, the number of retirees with six-figure benefits has more than doubled in the past five years. Read More
Public employee unions can’t invoke the Triborough Amendment to preserve old pension plans that did not require employee contributions, the state Court of Appeals held in two cases this week. The rulings, favoring management in the cities of Yonkers and Oswego, were a solid win for taxpayers. Read More
Updated pension data for retired New York State public school teachers and administrators, released to the Empire Center pursuant to a landmark Court of Appeals ruling last week, were posted online today atwww.SeeThroughNY.net. Read More
Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s announcement today of “stellar” pension fund investment earnings in fiscal 2014 doesn’t mean tax-funded pension costs will be headed rapidly back to “normal,” whatever that may be. Read More
Local governments and the state increased borrowing off the state pension fund to pay yearly retirement costs by 22 percent between 2013 and this year, state records show. Read More
Kathy Marchione, 58, “retired” as Saratoga County Clerk before taking office as a state senator this year. That reportedly qualified her to start collecting a $66,000 pension—the equivalent of a job paying over $70,000 a year, after adjusting for the fact that pensions are not subject to payroll or state income taxes. Which is not too shabby, considering the average private sector pay in the Capital Region was just over $43,000 as of 2011... Read More
So, in the end, the state’s pension guardian caved, after all. To his credit, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli did not embrace Governor Cuomo’s dubious proposal to allow localities to massively underpay pension contributions to the New York State and Local Retirement System... Read More