Cuomo, unions gear up for budget battle

ALBANY -- Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the state's public unions clashed Wednesday in what could be the beginning of a monthslong fight over his plans to reduce pension costs and impose teacher evaluations.

Unions vowed Wednesday to fight the proposals, saying they are being scapegoated for the state's financial woes. Cuomo, saying he's looking out for the average taxpayer, said he'd stand his ground.

"There's a real sense of no good deed goes unpunished," said Stephen Madarsz, spokesman for the Civil Service Employees Association, the state's largest public-worker union. "We stepped up to do the pension changes two years ago. Then, last year we accepted a contract with many unpalatable aspects. Now, our reward is death by a thousand cuts and some cheap shots at public employees."

Richard C. Ianuzzi, president of New York State United Teachers, promised to take the union's case "to the legislature and to the public."

The governor acknowledged he's in for a battle.

"I expect a difficult fight," Cuomo said Wednesday after an appearance in Yonkers to tout his budget. "Pension reform is central to many of the unions. And teacher evaluation is central to the teachers' unions. So I think it's a difficult discussion. But the state is in a different place than it's been. The economy is in a different place than it's been and these are reforms that should have been in place years ago."

Cuomo, in his $132.5 billion budget proposal on Tuesday, challenged major unions and their supporters in the State Legislature. If he succeeds, it would constitute a major revision of the state pension system and a significant toughening of performance standards for teachers.

Cuomo's proposals would withhold state-aid increases from school districts that don't implement a new teacher-evaluation system within a year and offer a cheaper pension package for future government employees -- for the first time offering them a new 401(k)-style retirement plan.

Experts say the back-and-forth on display Wednesday was just the beginning.

"The pension issue promises to be a knockdown, drag-out affair," said Arthur "Jerry" Kremer, a former Long Island state assemblyman-turned-lobbyist. "The governor has the wind at his back because of what's going on in other states. So the climate should contribute to him getting this done."

The state Education Department and teachers union are in a legal battle over the evaluation process. The federal government has said the delay could endanger $700 million in aid.

Cuomo said he's giving the sides 30 days to resolve it or he'd put a new evaluation system in the budget legislation -- which would have to be approved by the legislature.

And, the governor said any district that doesn't implement the new system by one year from now will have to forgo its share of an $805 million increase in school aid planned for this year.

Not letting up on the rhetoric Wednesday, Cuomo blamed the "very powerful" teachers unions for the delays.

"I understand the politics are hard around these teacher evaluations and the union has some concerns," Cuomo said, "and I also understand the students suffer for it and the state can't afford to lose . . . federal funds."

"The governor is simply wrong," Ianuzzi shot back. "What's standing in the way . . . is the bureaucracy and stubbornness at the state Education Department. It's certainly not teacher unions.

"I get it. We're a target But zeroing in on that isn't doing anything for students."