Governor David Paterson has proposed that all New York state employees be required to contribute 3 percent of their income towards their pension benefits. A very similar proposal was put into effect in 1976 for all state government employees. There was a protracted opposition from many powerful labor leaders at the time, as there is expected to be now.
See "In pension proposals, Paterson turns to tactic fought by unions in the past", Charles Delafuente, The New York Times, December 21, 2008