Governor admits to setbacks, says he asked for the moon

Cuomo: I Failed On Redistricting Danny Hakim, John Eligon and Thomas Kaplan write in this morning’s New York Times write about the series of deals Governor Cuomo made to win “a complex agreement with lawmakers over pensions, casinos, redistricting and other issues.”
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Governor Cuomo defends deal-making for pension reform

Governor uses compromise to achieve major goals In this morning’s Times Union, Rich Karlin and James M. Odato write about the compromises Governor Cuomo made in order to get pension reform passed. It came down to backing off his threat to veto gerrymandered redistricting lines i
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Government leaders, business praise Tier VI

Mid-HudsonNews.com sums up the reaction to passage of Tier VI: MID-HUDSON – Ulster County Executive Michael Hein says the governor’s “sweeping pension overhaul finally addresses” the rising costs that have cut into funds for vital services to municipalities, schools and police
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CSEA’s Danny Donohue comments on pension reform

Warns No Good Will Come from Tier VI From Capital Tonight… CSEA President Danny Donohue directed his harshest criticism at Gov. Andrew Cuomo. “Tier 6 shoved down the throat of state legislators fixated on their own self-preservation, will be devastating to 99 percent of New Yo
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Small business groups laud pension reform measure

Call it a Step in the Right Direction The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and Unshackle Upstate have issued separate statements supporting passage of pension reform by the legislature. Here’s NFIB’s statement (Unshackle Upstate’s statement follows)
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Business Council statement on passage of pension reform

ALBANY—“The pension reform agreement reached today is an important step in the right direction. For the first time, we have a public employee pension system that contains the option of a defined contribution plan for some future non-union public employees. The private sector has a
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Unions still not satisfied despite scaled-back Tier VI

Union Reacts Strongly to Pension Reform Deal E.J. McMahon writes in a NY Torch post about union reaction to the pension reform deal. He starts off with some union quotes – here’s his post: “It’s gotta be the biggest slap in the face of labor. It’s incredible,” said
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Governor announces passage of Tier VI

Pension Reform Will Save State and Local Governments including New York City More Than $80 Billion Over 30 Years The Governor has announced what we’ve been reporting all morning, passage of what he calls a “sweeping pension reform plan that will save state and local govern
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State Capitol: deals across the board

Pension Reform, Redistricting, Casinos, DNA Database, Teacher Evaluations, and More Here are some of the stories that touch on the many deals lawmakers have struck – and there’s still two weeks to the budget deadline. The New York Times: In Albany, Plan to Cut Pensions Tak
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Teacher evaluations now law

No surprise here. Governor Cuomo and legislative leaders reached a deal last night to put a new teacher evaluation system into law. The deal was a condition of the $700 million granted to New York schools through the federal “Race-to-the-Top program. Under the legislation, 60 pe
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