{"id":185041,"date":"2026-04-04T01:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T01:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/185041\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T01:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T01:28:10","slug":"kathy-hochuls-sleazy-deal-with-the-unions-will-make-new-york-less-affordable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/185041\/","title":{"rendered":"Kathy Hochul\u2019s sleazy deal with the unions will make New York LESS affordable"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Albany, the \u201cfix\u201d is in \u2014 and New Yorkers are about to get screwed once again. <\/p>\n

This time, it\u2019ll cost them about $1.5 billion a year, and it\u2019ll be thanks to Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s cave-in to the public-sector unions<\/a>, even as she blatantly breaks her vow to make the state more \u201caffordable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hochul is working out a scheme with New York AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento on behalf of the state\u2019s politically influential teacher, health-care and other public sector unions, whose membership \u2014 voters \u2014 top 1.2 million.<\/p>\n

The plan is to relax some reasonable restraints on pension costs that affect the plans of government employees hired after April 2012 (i.e., Tier 6 employees). <\/p>\n

That will make the plans enormously sweeter \u2014 even though they\u2019re already far more generous than those of nearly everyone in the private sector.<\/p>\n

That legislative leaders are letting Hochul and Cilento work out the scheme on their own is proof-positive that they\u2019re all on board: When the union says jump, they all race to ask how much more taxpayer cash can we shower you with?<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n

Most outrageous is that Hochul claims to be running for re-election on an \u201caffordability\u201d platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Really? Who does she think will pay for those pricey new goodies for union employees? <\/p>\n

Yup: Hard-working New York taxpayers, who\u2019ll be left with less money to spend on other things.<\/p>\n

Think about it: The reform that helped rein in pension costs in 2012 saved taxpayers billions. <\/p>\n

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And get this: The unions\u2019 \u201cFix Tier 6\u201d campaign that led to this deal claims it\u2019s meant to restore \u201cfairness\u201d . . . by retroactively hiking pensions \u2014 and lowering the retirement age from 62 to 55 \u2014 for workers hired in the past 14 years. <\/p>\n

Does that sound \u201cfair\u201d to you? <\/p>\n

Lowering the retirement age would cost an estimated $835.9 million. But the plan would also slash the employees\u2019 pension contribution rate from 4.5% to 3.5%, costing the state another $593 million.<\/p>\n

The Big Apple, other localities and school districts would have to shoulder $328 million in additional costs from their own budgets, hitting up taxpayers.<\/p>\n

Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a>, of course, is fine with, even though his budget is already billions in the red.<\/p>\n

Yet taxpayers, across the state, should be livid \u2014 particularly at Hochul for looking to worsen \u201caffordability\u201d just to buy union votes.<\/p>\n

The good news? This deal will be cemented by election time. Voters can hold the gov accountable at the voting booth. <\/p>\n

They\u2019d be well-justified in doing so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Albany, the \u201cfix\u201d is in \u2014 and New Yorkers are about to get screwed once again. This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1586,4241,304,426,9,24,55,54,56,299,240,985,13038,3555,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-185041","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-affordability","9":"tag-albany","10":"tag-editorial","11":"tag-kathy-hochul","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-city-news","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-opinion","18":"tag-pensions","19":"tag-taxpayers","20":"tag-teachers-union","21":"tag-unions","22":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}