"New York Lagging Behind in Essential Reforms" 
 
New York - June 6.  New York State legislators must take a lesson from Wisconsin and begin addressing the core problems afflicting the state's taxpayers and economic base -- unsustainable pension benefits, unfunded mandates, and irrational collective bargaining rights and binding arbitration rules, the fiscal reform group New Yorkers for Growth today said. 
 

"States like Wisconsin are now far ahead of New York in doing what is necessary to attract and grow jobs in the coming years," said New Yorkers for Growth spokesman Carla Kerr. "We have been tinkering around the problem in Albany while other states are facing the crisis head on, as it must be faced. New York government has been chasing business from the state for years. And guess where it's going? To states with rational tax policies and reasonable public employee union rules." 
 
Wisconsin now, at just over six percent, has one of the nation's lowest unemployment rates, while New York's economy is stalled. Lowering the cost of government is the key to private-sector job growth in New York. 
 
"If Governor Cuomo and the State Legislature don't forcefully challenge the unions in New York or enact meaningful mandate relief, municipalities across New York are going to go bankrupt in fairly short order," Ms. Kerr continued. "What we need in Albany is the leadership to prevent that from happening. We do not have it today."

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