Shedding light on state pension savings
Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks to the New York Conference of Mayors in Albany. Cuomo wants mayors to pressue their senators and Assembly members to vote for his cheaper pension plan for future workers over the opposition of public employee unions. (Feb. 27, 2012) Credit: AP
Mark it down as a rule of political spin that the most opaque issues can fuel the most transparent hype.
The Cuomo administration and public-employee unions clashed over a cheaper pension plan for new hires. Then lawmakers approved one in a late-night session last week. Now, as their war of words lingers, management and labor share a mutual interest -- maximizing in the public mind the impact of this new Tier VI plan, to the point where both sides sound overwrought.
From the way public-employee unions attack it, you'd think the change would send New York to the brink of a Wisconsin-style scuttling of collective bargaining rights. And from the elected officials who pushed and supported it, this reduced plan for future workers draws glowing accolades like "transformational" and "historic" and a blow to "special interests."
The truth, less dramatic, is that new employees, both union and nonunion, will still receive pensions with defined benefits, local governments will still face massive pension liabilities and the state Constitution will still bar current employees from having benefits cut.
Life will go on more or less as we knew it. But yes, the public does stand to save some money in what budget wonks like to call the out-years, which means the civil-service job gets slightly less remunerative.
In the patchwork of state and municipal retirement plans, we're talking about raising the retirement age from 62 to 63, increasing employee contributions on a progressive scale, and slicing from 200 to 100 the number of sick days and leave days that can be used for retirement service credit, and other such measures.
Ken Adams, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's top economic-development official, Thursday visited the Long Island Association office in Melville for a news conference to proclaim that the new pension plan will save Long Islanders more than $12.8 billion over the next 30 years.
An estimate of how many billions of dollars local governments will still owe, however, was notably unavailable.
Adams stood beside Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, Brookhaven Town Supervisor Mark Lesko and Long Island Association chief Kevin Law. "Until last week, the taxpayers were losing, the state workers were winning, in the tension between runaway pension costs in the state," Adams said.
"Really the best thing that's occurring right now," Mangano said, "is you have legislators and government talking about these taboo issues. A few years ago . . . you couldn't touch it, and today, many elected officials are beginning to stand up."
Lesko added: "This is one of those third-rail issues that elected officials, particularly elected executives, tend to shy away from, and I think the governor deserves a tremendous amount of credit for tackling this issue."
But Danny Donohue, president of the Civil Service Employees Association, has denounced Tier VI as a politically "expedient" deal -- one from which no good will come. Warning of its "harmful consequences," he announced that the CSEA will "immediately suspend all state political endorsements and contributions." One union wag asked if dues would be reduced.
The pension-hype race has even included teacher unions withdrawing sponsorship of the weekend's Latino legislators' conference in Albany -- and Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg providing $72,000 from campaign funds to make up for it.
Sculpting gray compromises like Tier VI into black-and-white slogans is what modern message-crafting is all about.
