Realpolitik in Albany: Will Tier 6 Be Fixed?

The New York State Education Department Social Studies Frameworks describes “How a Bill Becomes a Law” and teaches us a sanitized view of history and government.

From John Adams appointment of “midnight judges” after he had lost the 1800 presidential election to Joanne Freeman’s “The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to the Civil War;” actual battles on the floor of Congress and on and on, from the Founding Fathers to today we have avoided teaching the “cuts and bruises” of day to day politics.

Let’s remember, Socrates was sentenced to death for “corrupting the morals” of his students and he didn’t live in Florida, Socrates needed a union.

We no longer sentence you to death for teaching controversial subjects, well, not yet.

The world of Albany politics can be tough with many “cuts and bruises” in the legislative process.

In early January the governor’s State of the State address lays out general goals, a few weeks later the preliminary budget, early March the “one-house” budgets and “usually” by April 1^st a budget, and sometimes clearly non-budgetary items included in the budget, an example, Tier 6, a “gift” from Cuomo.

How can the governor include non-budgetary items in the budget? The NYS Court of Appeals (Pataki v Silver) ruled that the NYS Constitution did not prohibit, and the battle is decided between the legislative and the executive branches.

We were taught a bill is introduced, assigned to a committee, if approved moves to the floor, again debated, and voted upon.

In the “realpolitik” world the Speaker of the Assembly and the Majority Leader of the Senate are the gatekeepers along with the chairs of a few key committees. The bills are debated; however in “conference,” before session members convene, behind closed doors, members only, and “discuss” the issue of the day with the Speaker/Majority Leader and other key members. Of the 110 Democrats in the 150 member Assembly about a dozen, along with the Speaker control the flow of legislation.

Have you ever heard of Helene Weinstein?  She is the Chair of the Ways and Means Committee, every bill with a price tag comes through Ways and Means. Helene just announced she will not be running again, after 44 years in the Assembly. In my UFT Rep days Helene’s district was in my school district and in the decentralization days a few districts lobbied in Albany, Helene was generous.  We had a pre-K in every school.

Committee assignments and chairmanships are totally at the discretion of the Speaker.  Behind the scenes the maneuvering to chair Ways and Means is probably already hot and heavy.

The Class Size Reduction bill appeared in the waning days of the 2022 session, called the “Big Ugly,” the leaders bring scores of bills to the floor, no debate, and they’re all voted up. 

A key member of the Senate has kids in NYC public schools, having the “right” friends always helps.

While the labor movement, remember public employees across the state are members of Tier 6, are lobbying together school districts and municipalities and cities have to pay for the cost of pension enhancements and lobbyists representing school districts and mayors are also lobbying against fixing Tier 6.

Last year the governor, included raising the charter cap in her preliminary budget, a “pay back” to Bloomberg who spent millions on TV commercials supporting Hochul’s Housing Plan. The legislative leaders refused to go along with Hochul, the budget approval was delayed a few weeks. Did the legislative leaders have a political “ask” to the union for refusing to cave and delaying the approval of the budget?     

Maybe asking for a maximum effort, COPE dollars, to support Democrats in hotly contested races in November?

Behind scene “agreements” are an essential part of the political landscape. 

Why did Hochul sign the Class Size Reduction Act into law in spite of desperate appeals from Mayor Adams?   The NYSUT gubernatorial endorsement was far more important than Adams appeal.

Relationships with individual legislators are important, supporting Tier 6 reform in conference increases the pressure on leadership,

Senator John Liu chairs the NYC Education Committee, previously he was the NYC Comptroller.  Every Passover Liu and his wife would drop by a union staffer’s mother’s Seder, he loved her matzoh ball soup.

Fixing Tier 6 is complicated, moving the retirement age down to 55 is not costly in the short term, reducing the percentage paid out of each check is costly and computing the pension based on five years, or three years average salary or the last year is also costly. Each enhancement has an actuarial calculation, the cost to the school district or city.

While Fixing Tier 6 has a cost it is unlikely it will be part of the budget, although ……

For teachers in Tier 6 the issue is highly significant it pales in comparison to the issues at the front of the gubernatorial and legislative agendas, see here.

After the budget, and the Easter and Passover breaks there only 26 legislative days until June 6^th, the end of the session, primary elections are on June 25^th and both houses of the legislature are up for election.

Albany Lobby Day highlighted the issue, visits to local legislative offices and ultimately the “deal-making” at the leader level.

Mulgrew and his team have been nimble, no one every expected the Class Size Reduction bill would ever become law. The union nibbled away at Tier 4, slowly adding enhancements, hopefully we will see enhancements in Tier 6, maybe moving retirement with full benefits to 55, it’s the least expensive change in the short haul, and no one is retiring under Tier 6 for a few decades, then again …

In the 1880s a NYS judge wrote “No one’s life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session,”