Even New York Goes After Public Pensions

We've seen Wisconsin demand fiscal sanity with public employee unions. Is even New York beginning to see the light?

"New York state must slash the rapidly rising pension burden of schools and local governments, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday, unveiling plans for a sixth tier of benefit cuts.

The new tier, which the Democratic governor said would save $93 billion over the next 30 years, would only affect newly hired public workers. New York's state constitution prevents lawmakers from curbing retirement benefits already granted.

"Reducing the skyrocketing pension burden faced by local governments and schools will also help get control of local property taxes that are driving New Yorkers from their homes and from the state," Cuomo said in a statement."

The plan, detailed in the article quoted above from Reuters, is to raise the retirement age by three years to age 65, they'd get rid of early retirement, employees would actually contribute 6 percent of their salaries, and "vesting would take 12 years instead of 10 years."

Sounds kind of like common sense.