New York taxpayers spend billions of dollars a year on health insurance coverage for retired state and local government employees, many of whom are too young to be eligible for Medicare. But the mounting “pay-as-you-go” bill for retiree healthcare is just the tip of a much larger iceberg. Read More
Retiree health benefits for state and local government employees are a huge, unfunded and rapidly growing liability for taxpayers throughout New York. Read More
By capping property taxes, Gov. Cuomo has tapped the brakes on local government and school spending outside New York City. He’s also taken steps to limit the growth in the local share of Medicaid over the next few years, and to curb public pension expenses further down the road. Read More
Police and firefighter unions in New York have reaped a bonanza from the state law allowing them to insist on binding arbitration of their contract impasses. Read More
Unions not surprisingly don't like salary freezes, which are increasingly popular with elected officials as the New York state, its municipalities and school districts struggle with red ink. Freezing wages, union officials argue, violates... Read More
Officials in New Hartford say they were surprised to learn recently that town bookkeeper Carol Fairbrother retired in 2007 and now collects a pension of $42,696 on top of her $58,714 salary. Read More
It's not clear whether the Japanese scandal was caused by pension fraud, faulty government bookkeeping or "disintegrating family ties," reports the New York Times. Read More
When the city of Troy asked its Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) employees to consider forgoing a 3.5 percent raise this year, a CSEA spokesperson said, "...we do not renegotiate our contracts. It's a moot point," ... Read More