ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told the Legislature on Wednesday that he's willing to risk a shut-down of government to create a cheaper pension system for the next generations of public workers.
"It is one of the seminal clashes of this budget and of my administration," Cuomo told reporters. "The question is, does this body, does this government, does this Legislature perpetuate a pension system that is on the verge of bankrupting the state … or does the Legislature respond to the needs of the people?"
The Democrat, who usually makes a great effort publicly to get along with the majorities of the Senate and Assembly, noted that powerful public unions with great influence in both chambers oppose his cost-cutting proposal. He said his plan "goes right to the heart of the beast … the central power struggle of Albany."
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Cuomo said he alone in Albany want to cut the costs of future public employees in part by providing an optional 401k retirement plan and cutting down what he calls abuses — including ramping up overtime pay late in a career to pad a pension benefit.
State and local government officials and school district leaders have for years blamed much of the rise in taxes on the cost of traditional public pensions, which are subsidized by taxpayers when returns from the stock market sour.
Cuomo even dismissed the public statement by his close allies in the Senate's Republican majority, who said they are "open to parts" of Cuomo proposal. That's a public position in Albany that has sometimes been used to kill a popular bill, while publicly supporting the concept.
"'Open to parts,'" Cuomo said, "whatever that means."
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Nassau County Republican, has said pension costs need to be reduced and he favors Cuomo's proposal to make pensions "portable" from one public job to another in the private sector.
"As to the governor's proposal, we continue to review the overall proposal including changes that were recently advanced," said Skelos' spokesman, Scott Reif. The Senate's GOP majority is commenting little on Cuomo's budget proposals. A Senate analysis of the budget is due March 12.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, has said he supports parts of Cuomo's proposal.
"Our conference will be intensely discussing the governor's budget proposals and we will be formulating our own budget in the near future," said Silver spokesman Michael Whyland.
Cuomo could refuse to accept a budget from the Legislature that doesn't have a pension proposal. Once the budget became late, after the April 1 due date, he could then include his changes in an emergency "extender" budget bill.
The Legislature would then have to accept the plan, or refuse to pass the whole extender bill and shut down government.
"Am I willing to go to extenders? Yes. But they have to shut it down, not me," Cuomo said. "There must be pension reform in the budget."
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