Governor Cuomo introduced 30-day amendments to the Executive Budget

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Governor Cuomo introduced 30-day amendments to the ExecutiveBudget
Among the measures introduced by Governor Cuomo having a direct effect on public employees of the State are the following:
1. Implement teacher evaluation system in New York City. Under theGovernor’s leadership, the state passed a comprehensive teacher evaluationsystem for every district across New York State. Though 99 percent of districtswere able to reach an agreement on a plan with their local teacher unions,submit it to the state, and have their plan approved by the State EducationDepartment before their January deadline, New York City failed to so. As aresult, it lost $240 million in state aid and is in danger of losing additionalfunds if an evaluation system is not in place this year.

In the event the City and its collective bargaining units fail to reachagreement on a teacher evaluation system by the end of May, an expeditedarbitration process, led by the Commissioner of Education, will occur.Following hearings and a review of evidence, the Commissioner, by June 1^st,will make a final, written determination on the structure of a teacher evaluationsystem for New York City schools. This legislation will ensure that New YorkCity students and educators will not see another school year go by without thetimely feedback, professional development, and accountability that a robustteacher evaluation plan will provide.


2. Expand availability of the Stable Pension option. The stable pensioncontribution rate for local governments and schools, submitted as part of theExecutive Budget, will provide a new tool for local governments to access thelong-term savings from Tier VI and have greater predictability in their fiscalplanning. Given the positive response to this proposal from sectors who askedto take advantage of the program but were not initially included, the Governorwould expand eligibility to include BOCES and three local public hospitals –Nassau University Medical Center, Westchester Medical Center, and Erie CountyMedical Center. The county sponsors of the three hospitals included in thisamendment, as well as their taxpayers, have a direct interest in financialcondition of these institutions and, therefore, the stable pension option is aviable approach to meeting local fiscal demands.


3. Provide retraining funds for state employees. TheExecutive Budget included a $5 million appropriation to be used to retrainState employees impacted by 2012-13 and 2013-14 facility closures at OMH,OPWDD, DOCCS and OCFS. Funding would be available to retrain employees forwhich comparable State positions could not be found nearby their current worklocation. This amendment reduces the radius to 25 miles, allowing the funds tobe used to help a larger number of impacted employees.
The entire list of 30-day amendments is available at http://budget.ny.gov  
The Governor said that his 2013-14 Executive Budget and Management Planbuilds on two years of balanced, fiscally responsible budgeting and invests ineconomic development, education reform, rebuilding after Superstorm Sandy,provides support to local governments and school districts, and includes no newtaxes or fees. The budget is required to be passed by April 1.