As promised, Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced his approach to scaling back state pensions which he says would save taxpayers $93 billion over 30 years. According to the Times-Union, "Among the proposed changes: Raising the standard retirement age from 62 to 65; eliminating early retirement; requiring a 6 percent employee contributions for a workers' entire career rather than a limited period of time; excluding the use of overtime from calculating retirement pay; and banning the cashing in of unused sick days or vacation time." Teacher's retirement ages would be raised from 57 to 62. more ›

Former State Comptroller Alan Hevesi may be ailing, but he was still sentenced to one to four years in prison for his role in the state's pay-to-play pension scandal. On the other hand, Raymond Harding, the former Liberal Party head who took $800,000 in fees from investment firms hoping to be selected for the NY pension fund, was let off with no jail time. And it's partly because he's really overweight —state officials noted his cooperation with the case as well as his health problems. more ›

Hank Morris, the top aide to former state comptroller Alan Hevesi, pleaded guilty to securities fraud yesterday. It is the final guilty plea in the massive state pension fraud scandal which saw Hevesi, Morris and six others steer business to investment firms who would give them fees or favors in return. Morris said in court, "I intentionally engaged in fraud, deception, concealment, suppression, false pretense and fictitious and pretended purchase and sale and made material false representations and statements with intent to deceive and defraud." more ›

Former NY State Comptroller Alan Hevesi pleaded guilty to the felony charge related to his part in a pay-to-play kickback scheme where he gave investment firms a chance to manage the billions in NY's pension fund in return for favors for his family, friends and associates. He may face jail time, but guess what: He still gets his tax-free comptroller pension of $106,000/year, plus a tax-free $62,000/year pension for being a former CUNY professor. more ›

Former State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who resigned in 2007 because he was using state workers to chauffeur his sick wife around, is expected to plead guilty to a pay-to-play scheme involving the state pension fund. The NY Times reports, "Mr. Hevesi has been a subject of a lengthy investigation focusing on allegations that his friends, family and associates sold access to the state’s $125 billion pension fund, one of the world’s largest, to reward allies, pay back political favors and reap millions of dollars for themselves." more ›

Most of the attention for this year's election is on Andrew Cuomo and Carl Paladino's fight for the Governor's Mansion, but one big state race that's happening is the one for State Comptroller. The state has serious budget problems, thanks to the poor economy, and the state pension's fund has taken a serious hit as well. Last night, current Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and his Republican challenger Harry Wilson had a debate where they tried to haunt each other with their pasts. more ›

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. more ›

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." more ›

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. more ›