Results tagged “statepension”

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's Friday announcement that the NY State pension fund dropped 26% in the first quarter of 2009 (it's lost more $44 billion since a year ago—it's now at $109 billion) has irked Governor Paterson. That's because DiNapoli said local governments (with the exception of NYC) will have to raise their contributions to the pension fund. Paterson criticized the suggestion, noting the "already overburdened local property taxpayers," and said, "I am asking the Comptroller to go back and identify other alternatives that won't impose additional burdens to taxpayers." The NY Times reports, "Tensions have been festering between the two men since Mr. DiNapoli criticized increased spending in the state budget that was passed last month. Mr. DiNapoli has also not embraced a proposal by the governor to move future state workers from traditional pensions to a 401(k)-style plan." Also, Paterson has also proposed a new tier for the pension system, which would require public service workers to put in 25 years (vs. 20 years) and eliminate overtime in pension calculations. For fun, here's a list of the top state pensions.

Yesterday, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that Wall Street firm the Carlyle Group agreed to pay $20 million to settle its involvement in the state pension fund scandal. And the group, which the NY Times calls "one of the largest and most politically connected private equity firms," also agreed to no longer use placement agents to gain entrance to pension funds. The state pension fund scandal, which has led to similar issues with pension funds in NYC, California, and other states, involves firms pays these middlemen—some politically connected—kickbacks for help meeting comptrollers and the chance to handle millions in the pension funds. Cuomo said, "This is a revolutionary agreement. I believe it totally changes the way people operate: It ends pay-to-play, it bans the selling of access, it puts the political power brokers out of business." Tulane Law professor Elizabeth Nowicki said, "The onus is going to be on the private-equity firms to really market their results. They need to go out and get business the old-fashioned way."

State Senator Joseph Bruno, who will retire tomorrow from his decades of public service tomorrow, will receive $90,000-100,000 annually in pension. According to the NY Times, that's a step up from his base salary of $79,500/year (plus his retirement health benefits are pretty sweet, too). But Bruno won't be kicking back, telling reporters, "I’m not the kind of guy who’s going to go off and retire and just play with horses and golf." He says he'll work in the private sector, not for a non-profit.