"ALBANY — Lawmakers took baby steps toward bringing spending restraint and more-rigorous government oversight to the capital on Wednesday by closing most of a $3.2 billion state budget deficit, scaling back pension benefits for new government employees and overhauling the public authority system."
But the measures were greeted coolly by financial watchdogs, who said that lawmakers had made so many concessions that they had done little to change the fundamental problems that state government has faced.
Still, the developments were largely good news for Gov. David A. Paterson on a day when legalizing same-sex marriage, arguably his signature issue, was handily defeated in the Senate. And they were also a rare sign of functionality from the narrowly divided Senate, which has often struggled to vote on any subject.
For several months, the governor has pushed lawmakers to pass the pension legislation. The agreement offers new employees less-generous pension benefits, raising the retirement age of many new government workers to 62 from 55 and increasing their required contributions into the pension system, the first such scaling back of benefits in more than 25 years.
