Cuomo’s Common Sense Reform

The lead article in today’s New York Times, “Cuomo Proposes to Curb Pensions in Public Sector,” gives one reason why he is such a great governor.

I’ve always supported unions, including their fight to maintain collective bargaining in Wisconsin, but Governor’s Cuomos reforms seem very minor in comparison, and the reaction to them by heads of labor unions yesterday almost appears ridiculous.

This is what Governor Cuomo is reforming: a raise in the retirement age from 62 to 65 for public employees and to 65 from 57 for teachers. Contributions to pension plans would rise from 3 percent to 6 percent of salaries, and employees would be unable to “game the system” by amassing large amounts of overtime in their final year to affect calculations concerning the amount of their pension.

Not great for public sector workers but not all that bad either. Most people retire at 65 in the private sector after all with far less of a pension.

But the labor union reaction was way out of line. Danny Donohue of CSEA called it a “grandstand play” for the attention of the Governor’s “millionaire friends,” and Kenneth Brynian of the New York State Public Employees Federation called them “draconian pension cuts.” Oh, and by the way, none of these changes will affect current public sector employees, only future ones.

The only change of the Governor’s that I disagree with involves scaling back special programs for police and firefighters. It seems to me that they put their lives on the line every day and deserve special treatment.