THE GLOVES ARE OFF; IF IT'S A FIGHT CUOMO WANTS, IT'S A FIGHT HE'S GOING TO GET

Rochester, N.Y.-- Governor Cuomo's Tier 6 proposal is no more than political calisthenics-- he is willing to take the risk of conquering and dividing New Yorkers by proposing a budget that will jeopardize the stability of working family life in the Empire State.

By advocating for a Tier 6 proposal, which essentially turns a defined benefit system into a sort of defined contribution plan, Cuomo is embracing appeals to his very wealthy benefactors like the the Koch brothers and his big Wall Street donors. Some big names include real estate moguls Joseph Moinian, Jerry Speyer, Daniel Tishman and Andrew Farkas. Moreover, this plan weakens the ability of middle class consumers to spend and grow our economy.

In effect, he is turning on people who work for a living, labor constituents and the middle class in order to appeal to a more conservative, wealthy national base of contributors. This will assist him if and when he determines the climate is right for a national campaign for President.

A "pro-business" group has also been doing Cuomo's dirty work. The multi-million dollar Committee to Save New York (CSNY) was created to sway public opinion to support legislation that could help the private sector, mostly by targeting taxes and dismantling public services. This legislative session, the organization's cross hairs are set on our pensions that they claim are crippling state and local governments, and by extension, taxpayers. This is a big fat lie and nothing could further from the truth.

Don't be fooled by Cuomo's talking points

Do not be fooled by his or his surrogate's rhetoric when they come to your town-- there are no taxpayer savings here and the NYS Comptroller says that implementing such a plan would cost local governments millions of dollars to manage. You can read Tom DiNapoli's report here.

The fact is that Tier 5 has only been in existence since 2010. Working families made huge concessions then, with the thinking that we must do our part to balance the State Budget in extraordinary times. This tier has been projected to save the state and local government many billions of dollars over the next few decades-- however, it will not realize savings in the short term. Therefore, there is no demonstrated need for yet another pension tier. Period.

The fact is that the New York State Retirement System has been a proven and stable system for more than  nine decades. It has survived several world wars, the Great Depression and numerous recessions over that period. Governor Cuomo is banking on the fact that we have short term memories. For the better part of the 1990's, the system required very low if no contribution from the state and local governments, thereby saving those municipalities hundreds of millions of dollars in funds. The determination of whether the pension system is working can only be analyzed over a period of several years-- never in the short term.

This is a fully funded system which provides modest benefits to members. The average pensioner receives about $17,500 per year-- hardly an excessive amount by any means. Can you live on that? When our economy fully recovers from this recession and contributions by local governments will again fall to insignificant levels, this is a fact the governor and his staff would never share with you.

This fundamental question remains-- are we to have a stable and predictable retirement benefit or are our retirees going to be subjected to the swings in market values to the detriment of their retirement income?

In the event of a severe market decline, like what happened after George W. Bush left the economy is such disrepair in 2008, retirees would then be the victim of substantial reductions in their income and would probably have to work until the day they die. As it is, the middle class bailed out those banks and fools on Wall Street in the biggest shift in wealth transference in American history. What would make you think we would want to give our retirement money to a bunch of greedy fools in the form of a 401(k) so they can gamble it away on Wall Street?

Let's get to the crux of the issue. This an attempt to return our country to a circa 1932 state, where the elderly were always under threat of extreme poverty, and almost solely dependent on relatives for survival. Our Governor's attempt to destroy public pension systems by destabilizing them, or reducing social security benefits or making those benefits contingent on market performance have the potential to take middle class retirees into a world where financial stability is not a given, but a crap shoot.

Who will benefit from a Tier 6?

Moreover, who will benefit from this so-called reform? It won't be middle-class taxpayers-- it will be those New Yorkers who are already insulated from any financial harm and those business elites who are already lining up behind a Cuomo 2016 campaign. 

Any right-minded New Yorker should see this effort for what it truly is-- a thinly-disguised political chess game to attack the working class and perpetuate our race to the bottom.  Cuomo is an opportunist-- he knows the climate is just right to push for these measures when you consider what is going on in Ohio, Arizona, Florida, Wisconsin and Indiana.

Well, we New York working families have news for Governor Cuomo-- we will fight a Tier 6 proposal to our very last breath. We will fight this Tier 6 proposal like we have never battled a issue in the past. When this budget year is all over, he will wish he never went there. We will never surrender on this one. If Cuomo wants a fight-- we will give him everything he can handle.

To understand some simple facts about the Tier 6 Proposal, read on: