Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo flew into Buffalo on Thursday, talking about pension padding, before hopping on the Thruway to go to points east, Rochester and Syracuse, with a similar theme.

The message of the one-day upstate tour was similar to the one Cuomo delivered in New York

City on Wednesday: New York's pension system is subject to abuses and needs a fix requiring

local as well as statewide remedies.

Cuomo also said that it is possible some of the pension padding abuse could rise to the

level of fraud — although there are no specific cases at this point.

Listen to more from Cuomo about pension padding abuses:

What's more, some of the examples of abuse his office is citing are Erie County government

retirees. However, one county official later disputed that the cases represent pension

padding.

But just as occurred in New York on Wednesday, Cuomo's message Thursday ultimately went

beyond the pension issue as reporters peppered him with questions more suited to Cuomo as a

gubernatorial candidate than as an attorney general.

What do you think of the state budget situation, Cuomo was asked.

"I think they have to get back to the table as quickly as possible," he said.

What about the downstate controversy of a mosque planned by the ground zero site?

"America is all about religious freedom," he responded.

What about the upstate issue of the University at Buffalo' 2020 plan.

"I think UB 2020 is very exciting," he said.

This confluence of political and policy conversations has drawn criticism from Republican

gubernatorial candidates who accuse Cuomo of Rose Garden politics.

"It's not surprising that the attorney general may again be using his post in the

government to facilitate his political campaign. That's the Albany way," said Barney Keller, a

spokesman for Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio.

When asked Thursday when he will visit Buffalo as a gubernatorial candidate — rather

than as an attorney general who slips into candidate mode when questioned by reporters —

Cuomo good-naturedly responded: "That was a candidate question."

"I am working as attorney general," Cuomo continued. "That is what I get paid by the people

to do. They pay my salary. They expect me to do my job."

Listen to more from Cuomo on other topics:

Cuomo then indicated that he will wait until the Republican primary determines who he is

running against in the general election before starting an active gubernatorial campaign.

"I don't have a primary election thus far," Cuomo said. "Once the Republican Party picks a

candidate, that will be the race, and I look forward to it."

Not that there's no politicking going on. After the series of pension-padding news

conferences Thursday, Cuomo was staying in Syracuse for a fundraiser, where some 250 people

were planning to pay $200 to $250 each to spend time with Cuomo the candidate.

Because of the fundraiser, Cuomo's campaign was picking up all his travel costs for the

entire day, according to a spokesman for the Cuomo campaign.

Costs associated with Cuomo's attorney general staff, which was involved in the pension

investigation and news conference, were picked up by the government office.

Cuomo's office in March began investigating pension padding — when employees work

lots of overtime in their final years on the job in order to boost their public pensions.

Pension payments are based on salaries earned during a retiree's final year or years of

employment.

The preliminary investigation found patterns of pension padding in 28 of the 50

governments, agencies or authorities reviewed so far, Cuomo said.

Cuomo had two posters with him at Thursday's news conference, listing 15 examples of

apparent pension pension. Three of them involved Erie County government employees.

A deputy commissioner of civil defense preparedness who retired in 2009 with a $49,234

pension didn't receive any overtime until his final years on the job, when he racked up 1,629

in overtime, the attorney general's office found.

But John Greenan, Erie County's personnel commissioner, said the overtime that Deputy

Commissioner Dean Messing received during his final years on the job reflects the fact that

there were several major events in those years — including the 2006 October storm and

the Flight 3407 crash in 2009.

Also listed in the Cuomo report and related posters is a senior county election clerk who

worked 226 hours in overtime prior to retiring in 2009 but had not received overtime in

previous years. That's because the clerk, Wayne Kreitzbender, had been working as an elected

official, a highway superintendent in the Town of Boston, prior to working for the Erie County

Board of Elections in 2008, Greenan said. Elected highway superintendents do not get overtime.

Kreitzbender's overtime was in line with other Elections Board employees, Greenan said. He

retired with a $28,000 pension.

Also mentioned in the poster was a county shovel operator, whose average overtime went

from 144 hours a year from 2002 to 2005, to 820 hours a year during 2007 and 2008. He retired

in 2008 with a $44,487 pension, state records show.

Greenan said the shovel operator's overtime increased after Erie County laid off 1,500

employees during 2005, resulting in additional overtime for some remaining workers,

particularly when the October storm hit in 2006.

Beyond those examples, Cuomo said the abuse occurring in the pension system is statewide

and expensive. He said some of the most egregious cases his office has found could potentially

be illegal. He said that the probe has not yet identified any specific cases of illegalities

but that the investigation is continuing.

In addition to the 50 agencies that have been reviewed, the Attorney General's Office has

data from another 14 agencies and is requesting retirement and overtime information from 52

more agencies and departments. The newest list includes the cities of Lackawanna and

Tonawanda, and the counties of Niagara, Orleans and Allegany.