{"id":783014,"date":"2026-05-08T23:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T23:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/783014\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T23:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T23:46:15","slug":"hochul-proposes-500m-pension-sweetener-as-she-battles-unions-in-budget-stand-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/783014\/","title":{"rendered":"Hochul proposes $500M pension sweetener as she battles unions in budget stand-off"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALBANY \u2013\u00a0A stand-off between Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York\u2019s most powerful labor unions over public pensions is a major sticking point holding up the already delayed state budget \u2014 as the Empire State leader pushes back against outrageous demands that would cost taxpayers an eye-popping $1.5 billion. <\/p>\n

Hochul is pushing to scale back the unions\u2019 lofty request to improve retirement benefits for public workers hired after 2012 \u2014 when the Tier VI retirement law passed \u2014 to a more budget-friendly $500 million plan, sources told The Post.<\/p>\n

Under the governor\u2019s proposal, first reported by Gothamist<\/a>, the retirement age for New York\u2019s approximately 780,000 public employees would be decreased from 63 to 60 and contribution rates would be reduced by half a percent.<\/p>\n

\"GovernorGov. Kathy Hochul said that a looming deal give public workers a massive pension boost is likely to be included in a state budget deal. Mike Groll\/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the unions \u2014 represented by AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento in the negotiations \u2014 wanted to lower the retirement age to 55, in addition to lowering contribution rates.<\/p>\n

Legislative leaders have signaled that they\u2019ll go along with whatever deal is struck between Hochul and Cilento.<\/p>\n

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) said Cilento and Hochul met Wednesday night to discuss the counter proposal, which he doesn\u2019t think is \u201cfinal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they were still working through that,\u201d he acknowledged.<\/p>\n

Still, whatever deal is struck is likely to put a major strain on local governments, schools, public hospitals and law enforcement \u2014 which risk a mass exodus that could lead to service cuts.<\/p>\n

The cost of Albany\u2019s public pension giveaway will also translate into higher property taxes and school taxes for New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

\"MarioAFL-CIO president Mario Cilento is negotiating with Hochul on behalf of many of New York\u2019s labor unions over the deal. LightRocket via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cTier 6 is not broken. It is not affecting our recruitment and retention,\u201d Long Island Assemblyman Michael Fitzpatrick (R-Suffolk) told The Post, calling Hochul\u2019s proposal the \u201creduced fat\u201d version of her pork proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no reason to sweeten this benefit other than to try to get reelected. It is fiscally imprudent, and to me, in my mind, irresponsible to do this,\u201d the longtime pension system critic added.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers dashed from Albany for the weekend on Thursday after passing the ninth stopgap measure to keep the state government running while the budget is over a month past its April 1 deadline.<\/p>\n

While Hochul said she expects the actual text of the state budget deal to begin being released publicly sometime next week, it\u2019s unclear if lawmakers are totally on board and ready to begin locking down the plan after Heastie fiercely told reporters on Thursday there was \u201cno deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the Speaker, Governor and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) have said they\u2019ve forged general agreements over the major non-fiscal items Hochul proposed as part of the plan.<\/p>\n

They include sweeping new anti-ICE sanctuary policies<\/a>, a delay of crushing climate change mandates<\/a> that could\u2019ve sent gas and utility costs soaring even further and a proposal meant to lower car insurance premiums<\/a> by shaking up New York\u2019s legal liability statutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY \u2013\u00a0A stand-off between Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York\u2019s most powerful labor unions over public pensions is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":783015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[15],"tags":[20184,64,5371,5248,8707,255,4573,67,132,68,1154],"class_list":["post-783014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-albany","tag-business","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-metro","tag-pensions","tag-personal-finance","tag-state-budget","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-us-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116541626067565958","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}