A dozen “pension-sweetener” bills are on or headed for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s desk — and every one of them deserves a veto.
Some actually increase pensions for members of certain public-employee unions; others boost other benefits. But each bill is a giveaway to some special interest, a grant that should be offset by union concessions on some other front.
But unions get friendly state lawmakers to pass sweeteners every year, in hopes the governor will go along. Often, as it did with several of these 12, the Legislature doesn’t even bother to include the required fiscal notes assessing the costs to taxpayers.
Even so, it’s clear the immediate cost would be in the millions, and higher down the line.
The various bills expand death and disability benefits, enhance retiree health insurance or other retirement payments and so on for park police, forest rangers, court officers and other select public employees.
It’s no slur on these workers’ service to reject backroom deals cut in their names.
Carol Kellerman, president of the budget-watchdog Citizens Budget Commission, warns, “Adopting these bills would erode the savings New York state and its localities are realizing” from the limited pension reform passed earlier this decade.
If Cuomo intends to live up to his “fiscal conservative” talk, it’s time to put his veto pen to work.