Search the News Archive

Increased Tax on Health Insurance Will Burden New Yorkers

"[The ACA's] health insurance tax, slated to begin in 2014 and estimated to add hundreds of dollars annually to premiums for individuals, families, business owners and the elderly. This is a tax on health insurance itself and it begins at $8 billion in 2014 and increases to $14.3 billion by 2018. The tax is expected to total $101.7 billion over 10 years. Congress estimates that the tax will add about $400 a year to family premiums in 2016 alone."

Retirees Share What They Did Wrong and Right in Preparing for Retirement

"One of the most surprising findings in this year's [Consumer Reports of retirees and those near retirement] was that 56 percent of people were not drawing down their savings in retirement. Instead, they were living on interest, Social Security, pensions and other income. ... Retirees also shared the best steps they took toward a secure retirement. The top answer was staying in a job that had a traditional defined-benefit pension plan."

Federal Role in Delphi Pension Flap Confirmed; Salaried Retirees Encouraged

"A federal inspector general [has] confirmed what the employees had long suspected: that while negotiating General Motors' structured bankruptcy in 2009, federal officials played a role in the decision to make sure that most of Delphi's unionized retirees would get their full pensions, but the salaried retirees would not. That fact, combined with court orders forcing the government to turn over documents regarding the auto bailout that the government had long fought to keep secret, gives the salaried workers at least a little hope that some day they may get their full pensions back."

New York's New Pension Reform Eases Local Government Burden

"When new public employees -- including local teachers, firefighters, police and other workers -- are hired, they will have to contribute at a higher rate to their own retirement. Their retirement age will be 63, not the current 62. And their pensions will be based on the last five years they worked, not the last three. That's the upshot of newly approved reforms to the state pension system."

Trustee Pulls Corporate Strings with Weight of New York State Pension Fund

"As [New York's] state comptroller, Tom DiNapoli is not a member of Albany's exclusive three-men-in-a-room club. But inside the board rooms of some of the world's largest corporations, DiNapoli has come to be a recognized name of influence. His calling card? He is the sole trustee of the $150 billion state pension fund and where that money is invested. That makes him a player on Wall Street."

Many Catholic Institutions In New York State Already Covering Birth Control

Many Catholic institutions in New York [State] -- and in more than two dozen other states -- already are complying with ... state mandates [similar to the federal contracteptive mandate]. New York began requiring prescription contraception coverage in 2002 [for insurance-funded health plans], over the objections of Catholic groups, which sued and lost in the state's highest court.

Private-Sector Employees' Anger Over Perks for Government Jobs May Hit Pay, Pension

Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms [that] public-sector workers enjoy better benefits but earn lower wages. Government, when compared with private business, spends about 1.7 times as much on health care per employee-hour worked and nearly twice as much on retirement.