NYS taxpayers cannot afford more fixes to Tier 6 pensions

It's no surprise that Long Island municipalities are struggling to fund soaring employee pensions; nine of the region's 13 towns pierced the state's 2% tax cap in this fiscal year. 

The nearly $14 million increase in pension budgets was entirely predictable from the moment the State Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul approved a "fix" to how pensions are calculated for Tier 6 employees — public workers who joined the state payroll after April 1, 2012. That change last April allowed Tier 6 pensions to be based on a final average salary calculated on an employee's last three years of work, rather than five years. In some cases, taxpayers will now pay hundreds of dollars more per household in property taxes to accommodate the Tier 6 "fix" for retirement checks of local government workers. 

Before the legislature's 2024 vote, Newsday's editorial board spoke out against the change.

"Since employees often earn the most in those final years, this change would hike nearly every Tier 6 employee's pension — and would retroactively increase payouts for those who've retired in the last two years," the editorial board wrote then. "That would hike pension costs for public employers, including local and state governments, schools, police departments and more."

At the time, Long Island Republican Sens. Alexis Weik, Dean Murray and Jack Martins publicly supported the change in Senate floor speeches. "No one mentioned the word 'taxpayer,'" the editorial board wrote in response to the Republicans' public commentary.

Now, taxpayers are bearing the brunt of their representatives' actions. Lawmakers like Murray are defending their decisions. His argument: Improving employee pensions will act as a carrot for new people to come work for state and local government, filling vacancies and possibly reducing overtime costs. But local governments won't be able to suddenly increase hiring if they're simultaneously trying to handle out-of-control pension costs. And it's unlikely that many people will leave well-paying private sector gigs to come work in the public sector just because of Tier 6 improvements.

And it's not over yet. The "Fix Tier 6" movement continues. The state teachers union is planning rallies, including one on Long Island slated for next month, to advocate for additional pension payout changes. "Our goal is to get our Tier 5 and Tier 6 members to parity with Tier 4 members, in both contributions and retirement age," the Fix Tier 6 website says. "The most important thing right now is that our lawmakers remember this is a top issue."

Actually, the most important thing for Hochul and our lawmakers to remember is that taxpayers are footing the bill. Further changes to tiers 5 and 6 should be rejected. If officials again succumb, no one should be surprised when budgets — and taxes — rise once more.

As we said a year ago, "They should 'nix' any effort to 'fix' Tier 6."