Kathy Hochul must continue to nix those costly public employee sweeteners

Every spring, state lawmakers pass bills enhancing pension pork for public employees in a despicable effort to curry favor with the powerful unions; Gov.Hochul just vetoed one and is looking at another 11 that deserve the same fate.But the trend is bad: The Citizens Budget Commission reports that, where governors opted not to veto just 25% of the sweeteners it flagged for the trash from 2014 to 2019, a full 48% became law from 2021 to 2023.Now Hochul can start reversing that trend: The bill she killed was one of 12 sweeteners the CBC has identified as must-veto this year.

Will she make it an even dozen?The 11 remaining would cost taxpayers at least $19.8 million, plus $103 million every year in the future — and the actual toll would be higher since the Legislature simply skipped issue the “required” fiscal-impact estimate for four of them.Skyrocketing pension costs cut into local governments’ ability to deliver core services — and can force tax hikes.But since legislators don’t pay the bills themselves, they see this as a pack of free lunches.And the Legislature’s getting worse, too: It recently dumped $438 million a year in higher pension costs on state and local governments by undoing two “Tier 6” reforms; other proposed rollbacks would add $1.5 billion a year to costs that ultimately fall on taxpayers.Spiraling pension benefits consume ever-larger shares of state and local budgets, because the unions shamelessly keep coming back for more, the Legislature keeps agreeing — and governors let some go through.It’s an inside-Albany game done outside voters’ sight, but another reason New York gets ever-less livable.

Hochul is adamant that she wants to end the now-surging outmigration from the Empire State; if she means it, she needs to start vetoing every sweetener that lands on her desk....