We commissioned a poll at the Empire Center -- asking New York public school teachers how they felt about various pension reform options floating around the state capitol -- and the results are truly eye-opening.
Seventy-one percent of those teachers would support giving new hires an option between a
defined-benefit and defined-contribution plan -- the provision of Governor Cuomo's proposed pension reform plan that public employee unions (including teacher unions) are fighting most strenuously.
Likewise, 70 percent responded that given the choice when they were hired, they would have chosen or considered a defined-contribution retirement plan (26.4 percent and 43.6 percent respectively).
There's an incredible opportunity here for the legislature and the governor to put their collective heads together and give employees something they want and to provide the municipalities and school districts something they desperately need -- relief from ever-rising pension costs.
Our report, released last month, explains why a defined-contribution plan is not like a 401k and how Governor Cuomo's proposed DC could be better funded to the employees' benefit, despite what the state teachers' union keeps claiming.
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