Show and tell on pensions: Gov. Hochul must sign a bill making public pension names and amounts
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It was January 2010 and Kathy Hochul was in her first term as Erie County clerk when the Empire Center for Public Policy asked for the names and pension payments for retired NYPD cops, information that had been public for eons. But instead of handing that data over so it could populate Empire Center’s invaluable seethroughny.net website on public spending, the Police Pension Fund refused.
A dozen years later, the fight for transparency continues. Now, Gov. Hochul should join every single state senator and assemblymember, who unanimously passed a bill making pensioners’ names and dollar amounts public. The bill is on her desk awaiting her signature.
Her first day in the top job, on Aug. 24, Hochul laid down her marker: “In a new era of transparency, one of my hallmarks of my administration, but to me, it’s very simple. We’ll focus on open ethical governing that New Yorkers will trust.”
On Oct. 19, she went further: “New Yorkers should be informed about the work government does for them every day, but we have to make it easier for them to get that information. Transparency comes in many forms and there are many opportunities for us to establish that we will be the most transparent administration in the history of the state of New York.”
Sign on the dotted line, governor.
