New York Constitutional Convention Vote Raises Concern Over Pensions

By Mike Vilensky

With roughly five weeks until New Yorkers vote on whether to hold a constitutional convention, concerns about public pensions are driving the opposition.

Convention supporters say the event wouldn’t make changes to pension benefits for state retirees, which are guaranteed in the state constitution. But labor unions opposed to the convention have raised worries about the possibility.

“If you want retirees to phone bank, put up signs, place bumper stickers on their cars, you need a compelling issue to motivate them,” said J.H. Snider, an expert on state constitutional conventions who is running the New York State Constitutional Convention Clearinghouse. “If I were protecting a lifelong pension worth a million dollars or more, I’d react the same way.”

On November ballots, New Yorkers can vote for or against the convention, where specially elected delegates from the state’s legislative districts can propose amendments to the state constitution. To become law, those amendments must be ratified at a voter referendum. 

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Source: The Wall Street Journal (via The Empire Report)