Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politics<\/a><\/p>\nIt doesn\u2019t end there either. Fiscal watchdogs warn that the change will mean local governments and school districts across the state have to take drastic measures to take on the extra costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnhancing Tier 6 benefits was unnecessary and unwise. It will require local governments and school districts to either siphon money from programs or increase taxes,\u201d said Andrew Rein, executive director of the Citizens Budget Commission.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe $550M price tag, added to the cost of enhancements in 2022 and 2024, brings the total bill to $1B a year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamdani, the fledgling socialist who took office as mayor in January, had campaigned promising to tax the rich, eventually getting the governor to agree to the tax on second homes as she faces re-election in November.<\/p>\n
The city is hoping to generate $500 million from the tax, but city Comptroller Mark Levine had estimated it could be far less \u2014 under $400 million. The rollback of Tier 6 will gobble up a chunk of any new gains from the tax-the-rich crusade.<\/p>\n
The massive spending bill that state lawmakers were set to push through on Tuesday showed the city retirement systems will pay at least $151.1 million to cover pension costs in fiscal year 2027, rising to $221.8 million in 2024 and $389.7 million by 2051 \u2014 a cumulative increase of more than $6 billion for city taxpayers.<\/p>\n
The hit on Mamdani\u2019s city government budget totals $121 million, while there is another $30 million for workers in NYC Transit, Health + Hospitals and the New York City Housing Authority.<\/p>\n
This pension windfall allows teachers and other educators to retire at age 58 with 30 years of service, up from 63 \u2014 a big victory for the teachers\u2019 union that lobbied for the change.<\/p>\n
The United Federation of Teachers boasted that the rollback saves members $45,000 in pension payments by retiring five years early.<\/p>\n
Teachers with an average pension of $85,000 a year will now collect an additional $425,000 by retiring at age 58 instead of 63.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlbany heard us and took a major step in correcting the injustice of Tier 6,\u201d\u00a0 gushed UFT president Michael Mulgrew.<\/p>\n
\u201cLowering the retirement age for educators from 63 to 58 after 30 years of service will make the pensions better and fairer for current and future employees,\u201d he added. \u201cIt shows that progress is possible when we stand together.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Government workers in Tier 6 essentially get a raise by contributing\u00a0 less toward their pensions and shifting more costs to local governments and taxpayers.<\/p>\n
Workers making between $55,000 and $75,000, will now contribute 3% of their compensation toward their pension instead of 4.5%.<\/p>\n
The contribution will drop from 5.75% to 4% for workers making between $75,000 to $100,000 and from 6% to 5.25% for those making between $100,000 and $1250,000,\u00a0 and from 6% to 5.75% for those making over $125,000.<\/p>\n
The cap on overtime earnings that can count toward the final pension benefit also increases to $30,000, up from $24,000 for Tier 5 members and $22,000 for Tier 6 members.<\/p>\n
Other language in the state bill would increase the overtime that can count toward pensionable wages for state and local Fire Departments from 15% to 25%.<\/p>\n
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the legislature pushed Tier 6 in 2012 to curb ballooning pension costs after it increased tenfold between 2000 and 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not just an election year giveaway,\u201d Girardin said. \u201cThese are permanent, recurring costs imposed on taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even Democrats privately agree the pension porkapalooza \u2014 coupled with the controversial pied-a-terre tax \u2014 is an embarrassment for Hochul and Democratic lawmakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe effectively just jacked up taxes to provide a platinum-plated parachute for unions\u2014not to plug some hole in the budget to provide basic services to regular New Yorkers,\u201d one Democratic source seethed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City taxpayers will dish out $151 million for Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers\u2019 sweetheart giveaway to public-sector…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2132,426,57,9,56,63,65,64,240,2780,58],"class_list":["post-244547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-democrats","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-pensions","tag-taxes","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244547","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=244547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Governor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026-buffalo-ny-governor-hochul-128702142.jpg\")
Governor Hochul makes an announcement and highlights her \u00e2Get Offline, Get Outside Campaign\u00e2 at Buffalo Harbor State Park. Darren McGee\/ NYSDED<\/p>\n