Counties relieved to avoid “unfunded mandate”
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- September
- 5
  The state Association of Counties is hailing Gov. David Paterson’s veto of legislation that would have prohibited municipal employers from changing retirees’ health-insurance coverage without a corresponding union-negotiated change for active employees. Had he signed the bill, the governor would have saddled communities with another “unfunded mandate,†according to NYSAC.  The bill would have required a study of the health costs for retired public employees and placed a one-year moratorium on cutting what is spent on health insurance. Paterson is the third governor in a row to veto the legislation.
  The law would have prevented muncipal employers from looking into “other, more cost effective health-insurance coverage options,†NYSAC Executive Director Stephen Acquario said in a statement. “With this veto, Governor Paterson demonstrates he understands the direct correlation between the budgetary and policy decisions made in the state’s Capitol and the plight of New York’s local governments and property taxpayers.â€
  The legislation would have set up a 12-member task force to study retiree health insurance. Local governments would not have had a seat on the panel.
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on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 1:41 pm by Cara Matthews.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
