The most recent legislative session echoed other recent legislative sessions where certain State Reps and State Senators such as Candelora, Fasano, Klarides and others tried to advance two main goals:
1) Remove Pension/Healthcare from negotiations so they can install a straight 401(k) plan
2) End pension COLAs. This would make your pension a diminishing benefit. Your pension would remain the exact same dollar value for your life but inflation would make the value of those dollars worth less each year.
These items again died in the legislative process thanks in large part to lobbying efforts to fend them off and the efforts of House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz and Senate Leader Martin Looney who were able to negotiate some sense with the fringe elements who continue pushing for these conditions. Keep in mind that this is an election year, so if you listen, you will hear many candidates speak (indirectly) about these subjects. Understand what they are saying when they call for "pension reforms", it means they want to take it from you or make it a diminishing benefit (see items 1 and 2 above).
That aside, there were a couple of legislative changes with impact to State Employees. HB 5481 reduced the Job Exam/Opening announcement timeframe down from 2 weeks to 6 days. Also, announcements do not need to be posted on bulletin boards, announcements need only to be posted electronically. Exam appeal timelines were also shortened, from 12 days down to 6 days. Keep in mind, the newly released JobApps system is where all State Exam/Opening traffic is passing through. The new application process is streamlined so Exams and Openings are filed simultaneously (no longer will we be cattled into an off-site exam room on a Saturday to take a math test that we have already passed 3 times in our career and then wait months for the opening to appear). So it is important to register with JobApps and have your "Master Application" prepared to quickly respond to exam/job openings as they are posted because the timeframe for postings has been reduced to 6 days rather than 2 weeks.
The next change is to the FOI process (HB 5177). The statute was re-written to ensure that employees are notified when their personnel records are FOI'd. This is minor, but now employees will be made aware when someone is snooping in their business.