A coalition of business groups is applauding Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s report released on Wednesday highlighting the financial woes of local governments, but say more than just a review of the numbers is needed to fix the problem.

“Comptroller DiNapoli, in his New Fiscal Realities Challenge Local Governments, did an excellent job of identifying what we have been saying for the past few months, that local governments are in trouble,” said Brian Sampson, executive director of Unshackle Upstate. “But it won’t be enough for local leaders to just review their budgets. We need our elected leaders at the state level to not only embrace our agenda but enact it into law. Doing so will provide both long and short-term savings for both municipal governments and school districts. And it will structurally change how we collectively bargain contracts and pay for public construction. Passing our agenda will help to ensure that we are able to afford the cost of necessary services from municipal government and that our kids receive an excellent education. And all without the need to slash public employment”

The coalition, Let NY Work, re-released its 2011 agenda that called for systemic changes to the way governments do business in New York, including reforming the Scaffold Law, changes to arbitration procedures and no new mandated spending from Albany.

Included in that was a defined contribution component to the Tier Six pension plan. The new, less generous pension tier was ultimately approved in March, saving nearly $80 million over 30 years. But the defined contribution provision was ultimately scaled back and altered so that future non-union workers who make above 75,000 were the only ones included.

Let Ny Work Agenda

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