Cuomo’s ‘Pension Smoothing’ Just Another Name for ‘Vote Hustling’ - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Cuomo’s ‘Pension Smoothing’ Just Another Name for ‘Vote Hustling’ - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Cuomo's plan is to lower worker contributions to the pension and to mandate a standard contribution rate across the entire state. This upends local control and responsibility, but that seems to be the point. Cuomo says his plan will balance over a 25-year period of economic ups and downs, but if it doesn't, then who will be around 25 years from now to complain about it?

Miner correctly points out that the uniform contributions are not a cure-all for the state's pension and benefit debt. Cuomo's uniform contribution rate plan is much like Social Security's FICA tax, also uniform, also spread over eons of time, and we all know how that's working out.