The New York Times - Albany Candidates Oppose Forced Pension Increases
The New York Times - Albany Candidates Oppose Forced Pension Increases
The major candidates for governor said on Tuesday that they opposed granting pension sweeteners for government workers if the measures are not supported by the local governments that must pay for the pensions.
The candidates addressed the issue after The New York Times reported that Gov. George E. Pataki and the State Legislature had approved billions of dollars worth of pension enhancements for New York City's retirees over the last decade including many measures that were opposed by the city on the grounds that they were unaffordable.
Christine Anderson, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a Democratic candidate for governor, said in a statement, "Eliot opposes legislative changes to pension benefits that were not agreed to in collective bargaining and did not receive support from local governments that are obligated to pay the benefits." John Faso, the Republican nominee for governor, said in an interview that while he could not absolutely rule out such a pension bill if there were exceptional circumstances, "I would be very reluctant to support any enhancements that are not supported by the jurisdiction that has to pay for them."
And Thomas R. Suozzi, the Nassau County executive, who is running against Mr. Spitzer in the Democratic primary, flatly declared that as governor, "I'd veto every one of them put on my desk."
"We already have the highest combined state and local taxes in America, and one of the most generous pension systems in the country," Mr. Suozzi said in an interview. "It is one of the dark secrets of Albany: During the dark winter days of the legislative session, lobbyists slither around the hallways garnering more benefits for their clients. This forces local governments that have no say whatsoever in the rewarding of the benefits to cause their property taxes to go up."
Under state law, changes to pension benefits for local government workers must be approved by the Legislature and the governor. Traditionally, many unions would negotiate with the city to improve their pensions and, if they reached agreements, the unions and the city would go to Albany together to ask for the new benefits.
It still works that way sometimes, and several of the biggest benefit enhancements of the last decade were supported by the city. But unions that seek pension enhancements and are turned down by the city increasingly find that they can win the benefits from Albany anyway, and they have learned to push for new benefits through heavy lobbying and campaign contributions.
Mr. Faso said that he favored giving school districts and local governments the option of eliminating traditional pension plans for new employees and giving them saving plans similar to 401-K plans, which the employers and the employees would contribute to. He said that such savings plans would give workers flexibility, because they could take the accounts with them if they left their jobs.As an assemblyman, Mr. Faso supported a couple of the most expensive pension enhancements of the last decade. In the interview, he said that he still supported the idea of providing automatic annual cost-of-living increases for retirees, because many of the older retirees had seen the purchasing power of their benefits eroded by inflation.
But he said he had "second thoughts" about another bill he voted for, which allowed many workers to stop contributing to their pension plans after 10 years. Mr. Faso said the state should consider creating a new tier, or pension system, for new employees that would in effect undo that change and require the contributions again.
http://tomsuozzi.com/news/nyt_082306/