On behalf of the Co-Chairs, Trustees, Directors and, most importantly, the members of the New York State Public Employee Conference (NYSPEC), it is my distinct honor and privilege to welcome you to our 47^th Annual Legislative Breakfast.  It is important to note that this would have been our 48^th annual breakfast; however, we were compelled to cancel the event four years ago because of the pandemic.

We host this breakfast event to give you, our government officials, an opportunity to see firsthand the broad spectrum of our membership, and to provide the opportunity for you to become familiar with our legislative agenda.  The event is held in Albany early in each year's legislative session to bring together our elected officials and the leadership and key individuals from our public employee member unions and groups.  This event always highlights NYSPEC's annual events calendar.

This year’s event will surpass prior gatherings in terms of the number of attendees, and feature welcoming remarks by Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, followed by speeches by NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Senate Civil Service & Pensions Chair Robert Jackson, Senate Labor Committee Chair Jessica Ramos, Assembly Labor Committee Chair Harry Bronson, Assembly Governmental Employees Committee Chair Stacey Pheffer Amato, Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt, and Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay, with the keynote speech by none other than the Governor herself, Kathy Hochul!

Our diverse membership has formulated NYSPEC's 2025 Legislative Agenda, and encapsulated our goals in this booklet as a guide to all who are interested in ensuring that public sector employees are recognized, appreciated, and appropriately protected, compensated and rewarded for the extraordinary work they perform – on a daily, and ongoing, basis – for the people of the great State of New York.  At our Annual Meeting / Convention in December, where each year our legislative agenda for the upcoming legislative session is formulated, our membership committed to continue prioritizing Tier / Pension Equity as our number one legislative priority.  NYSPEC's 2025 Legislative Agenda, printed in a widely distributed booklet, is viewable also on the public portion of our website – nyspec.org – and we welcome all to refer to it as the year progresses.

Our Conference was formed in1977 with just 13 member unions; because of the tenacious representation of our members, we have grown significantly, and can now boast 90+ member unions and groups representing more than one million active and retired public employees!

We, as an umbrella organization, have been and are fighting the erosion of public employee benefits on many fronts.  We commit to redoubling our endeavors to ensure that legislation beneficial to all public employees is enacted, and, conversely, legislation detrimental to them is blocked.  We appeal to all elected officials to carefully consider the impact of all legislative proposals on our members, who continue to show their commitment to the people of this state.  I reiterate:  the issues delineated in this booklet were developed and unanimously approved by all the unions and groups comprising our conference.

Generally speaking, the New York State legislature has been supportive of our legislative agenda, chiefly because it is essentially an agenda of fairness for the people who work for the improvement and protection of the public good. The New York State Public Employee Conference commits to continue working in harmony with you, our elected officials – yourselves dedicated public employees! – to obtain positive results for our membership.

You are encouraged to visit our website – nyspec.org – to stay updated on NYSPEC’s efforts to protect New York's public employees!

Thank you!