Before a legislative session an announcement is made calling members to “conference,” the party caucus, members only, meetings with legislative leaders to discuss issues in private, the leaders get “the temperature” of members before an open session, on the floor members vote as blocs, it is highly unusual to vote against an item allowed to come to the floor by leadership.
Fixing Tier Six means passing bills in both houses with the support of the governor, bills that will cost localities across the state increases in school taxes, a heavy lift. In the past the unions, all public employee unions have “nibbled” at the existing pension laws slowly improving benefits. This year the legislature and the governor approved computing pensions based on the last three year average salary instead of the previous five years,
If the governor or a leader of the Assembly or the Senate asks the union to support a particular candidate you try to say yes, to build up credits, the essence of politics is relationships. The union needed the governor to sign the class size reduction bill and the governor needed the endorsement of the union,
In the subsequent session the governor wanted legislative support to build 800,000 units of affordable housing primarily in suburban districts, former mayor Bloomberg gave her $5M to flood the airways with “commercials,” apparently in return the governor would remove the NYC charter school cap, the legislature pushed back. Is Hochul pro charter? Hochul is pro Hochul and does what’s necessary to achieve her goals.
If Hochul asked the union to endorse a candidate, purely speculation, the union may accede, building “credits” is part of politics.
Attacking Hochul as being pro charter and asking her to sign a Fix Tier Six bill is tragic inexperience, more likely to get you Tier Seven!
As far as the Trustees of the Teacher Retirement System, trustees do not “manage” our pension, Trustees set policy and the TRS and Comptroller staffs manage the system. Trustees don’t select which stocks to buy and sell, once again the Board sets policy, there are six investment choices for members, the Board, at the online monthly meeting reports on the performance of each option. The Trustees, three elected by in-service members, two appointed by the major and one each by the comptroller and the central school board IPEP), have nothing to do with “Fixing Tier 6,” a totally legislative issue. A key role of the teacher Trustees is setting policy that assures that the retirement system responds to the needs of memberships. No place for a neophyte.
Politics is about relationships,
It takes a decade for an elected in Albany to play a role, endorsing the son of the County Leader is probably an excellent choice, he’ll probably move ahead more quickly.
Mulgrew and his team are nimble, they fully understand the culture of Albany (and the City Council), it’s not how loud you scream, it’s not about attacking a member, it’s about working with the leadership, the gatekeepers.
When I became a union staffer I was in charge of a school district, a powerful political club elected the school board, who picked the superintendent and principals. How could the union have any influence? An old timer said, “Join the political club.”
Over time I became to go to member when club member asked a school question, the go to person if the club wanted a union endorsement – I made the contact The superintendent and the principals had more respect.
A highly qualified friend, with no political contacts, was interested in the open position of ‘Brooklyn member of the Board of Regents. She was introduced to a few key legislators, they liked her, the wheels spun she was elected by a joint meeting of the state legislatures and served ten years, a forceful opponent of charter schools, got the state to revise onerous requirements for prospective teachers, she was an outstanding pro teacher member,
I think Aristotle said, “Better inside the tent peeing out than outside the tent peeing in.”
Ed in the Apple: Blogging on the Intersection of Education and Politics Title 