Governor Andrew M. Cuomo Friday, joined by Mayor Bloomberg and elected officials from across New York State, signed into law sweeping pension reform legislation that will save state and local governments, including New York City, more than $80 billion over the next 30 years.

"For years rising pension costs have spelled disaster for local governments across the state. That finally changed this week, as we came together to put in place a bold pension reform plan that will save taxpayers more than $80 billion over the next three decades," Governor Cuomo said. "By putting the interests of the people of New York State first, we overcame the obstacles that for so long have stood in the way of real reform and delivered one of the most critical, widespread fiscal reforms the state has seen in years. I thank Majority Leader Skelos, Speaker Silver, members of the legislature, elected officials across the state, and particularly Mayor Bloomberg for all the hard work that went into putting in place this important new pension reform..."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers were at odds Monday over major portions of the state budget as they seek to pass an on-time spending plan for the second year in a row.

The Democratic-led Assembly and the Republican-controlled Senate offered their own budget resolutions on Monday, proposing significant changes to the plan introduced by Cuomo on Jan. 17.

In particular, lawmakers left out Cuomo's plan to adopt a less generous retirement benefits for new state workers. Cuomo warned he might force legislators to either approve his plans or risk a government shutdown if a deal isn't reached by April 1, which is the start of the 2012-13 fiscal year...

Pension benefits for new government workers in New York are shaping up to be a key battle as lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo head into the final month of budget negotiations.

With the Legislature on mid-winter break until Wednesday, Cuomo ramped up his vow to enact a new pension tier that would provide less generous benefits to new employees. He said this week that he would insist pension reform be part of the state budget for the 2012-13 fiscal year, starting April 1.

Cuomo said his effort to curb burgeoning pension costs for state and local governments pits him against special interests...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo told the Legislature on Wednesday that he's willing to risk a shut-down of government to create a cheaper pension system for the next generations of public workers.

"It is one of the seminal clashes of this budget and of my administration," Cuomo told reporters. "The question is, does this body, does this government, does this Legislature perpetuate a pension system that is on the verge of bankrupting the state ... or does the Legislature respond to the needs of the people?..."

Another go showing the unions no love. This time, it is not Republican Chris Christie in New Jersey. This time it's democrat Andrew Cuomo next door in New York.

Cuomo clamping down, pushing union members to pony up, and now unions are fed up and now fighting back. Tonight a democrat base getting in his face.

The Keystone cop out. Republicans lashing out at the president's decision to knock out a job creating pipeline. Then if image is everything then this image tell you every thing you need to know about Carnival Cruise Lines futures. The picture that could sink an entire company...

In addition to highlighting Gov. Cuomo’s possible plans to link school funding to a teacher evaluation system,  my story and the accompanying graphic today also hit on other parts of tomorrow’s budget announcement.
 
Cuomo’s budget is expected to reduce overall spending for the second year in a row, hike state taxpayer supported funding by just under 2%, close a $2 billion budget deficit and--and possibly include his new plan for pension reform.
 
Like the teacher evaluation system he is expected to include, the pension reform plan will likely raise the ire of the public worker unions...

Before 2,000 onlookers, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo outlined economic growth measures, pension reform, mandate relief, and public education reform this afternoon, in his second State of the State Address.

He also announced plans to lay out a blueprint for economic development. Cuomo’s job creation measures were described as “$25 billion in state, federal and private economic activity,” through private-public partnerships. He described plans to rebuild the Tappan Zee Bridge, and the Jacob Javits Convention Center on Manhattan’s west side, and proposed an energy superhighway, among other proposals.

Meanwhile, Cuomo proposed amending the state’s constitution to further regulate and allow casino gaming...

Licenses for same-sex marriages were supposed to be issued in Iowa starting this Friday. But because of a crimped state budget, court employees will be on mandatory furlough that day and the courts will be closed. Gay couples cannot start filing for their licenses until Monday.

As they try to cope with gaping budget deficits, at least 15 states from every region — like Alabama and Georgia in the South; Arizona, California and Washington in the West; and Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York in the Northeast — are in various stages of considering or carrying out furloughs.

"This may very well be the most widespread use, or consideration of use, at least since the emergence of the post-World War II economic boom," Robert Bruno, professor of labor relations at the University of Illinois, Chicago, said of furloughs…

HIV rates are declining in prison, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, but AIDS activists paint a different picture of the disease's prevalence both in and out of prison.

Laura M. Maruschak, a statistician for the bureau, studied statewide HIV rates for 2005 and 2006, and found that the number of HIV positive prisoners decreased by a little more than three percent (from 22,676 to 21,980). Despite this drop, the overall AIDS rate among prisoners was 0.46 percent compared to 0.17 percent for the U.S. general population.

The report, "HIV in Prisons 2006," further indicated that the number of AIDS-related deaths in state and federal prisons dropped to 167 from 203; and the states with the largest numbers of AIDS related deaths were Florida (28), New York (14), Pennsylvania (13), Georgia (10) and Louisiana (10).

The data does not include information on the flow of HIV positive inmates in and out of prisons, and the Justice Department has no idea of where inmates go when released, but is exploring ways to get that data. There are also times when some states fail to submit year-end data—mostly because states do not have the facilities to track the numbers…

It's an experiment that has arguably run its course.

In the last 20 years, states across the country have quadrupled their spending on jails and prisons from $11 billion in 1987 to $44 billion last year, while imprisoning 2.3 million individuals – or one in 100 American adults, according to a report released by the Pew Center on the States. While some criminologists give incarceration partial credit for cutting crime in the 1990s, many argue that these public safety benefits are evaporating and that money for jails would be better spent in other areas such as health care and education…

New York's federal prisons are letting inmates sleep in areas not originally designed for inmate beds — such as television rooms — because of overcrowding in excess of 50 percent, according to correspondence with the Federal Bureau of Prisons that was released by Senator Charles E. Schumer today.

According to Harley G. Lappin, the director of the Bureau of Prisons, more than 5,700 inmates were in New York federal prisons on an average day in the 2007 fiscal year, far above the recommended population of 3,600.

Each of New York's four federal prisons is at least 50 percent over capacity, with the federal prison in Ray Brook at a high of 61.2 percent over capacity…

Immigrants who spent time in detention while fighting deportation filed a federal suit on Wednesday against Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, demanding that the agency issue legally enforceable regulations for its detention centers.

No enforceable standards now exist for the immigrant detention system, a rapidly growing conglomeration of county jails, federal centers and privately run prisons across the country.

The lawsuit, filed by the immigrants and their advocates in United States District Court in Manhattan, contends that the lack of such regulations puts hundreds of thousands of people a year in substandard and inconsistent conditions while the government decides whether to deport them, leaving them subject to inadequate medical care and abuse…