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COLONIE -- Almost 3,500 state workers heaved a sigh of relief Thursday at the announcement that the Public Employees Federation had ratified its revised contract, prompting Gov. Andrew Cuomo to rescind layoff notices.

The contract passed by a whopping 70-30 ratio that reversed September's rejection of an initial contract offer.

PEF President Ken Brynien said the vote shows union members "are willing to do their part to put New York state on a stable financial footing, as all New Yorkers should, and are helping to resolve a fiscal crisis for which they were not responsible."

"It's great news across the board," Cuomo said at the Capitol an hour after the results were released. "This entire effort -- you have to remember when we started -- was a monumental undertaking."

The revote, which was conducted on a fast-track basis less than two months after the first thumbs-down, drew nearly 3,000 more participants for a final tally of 27,718 in support, 11,645 against. The first offer went down to defeat 19,629 to 16,906.

Some 52,000 PEF members were eligible to vote.

PEF officials as well as rank-and-file members facing layoff said the imminent threat of job losses made the difference.

"We had names and faces and agencies and work locations," said PEF Vice President Tom Comanzo.

"More people ... stood up and said, 'I'm going to be laid off'" after the first round of voting, added Secretary-Treasurer Arlea Igoe.

"We didn't sleep for five weeks," added Susan Olsen, a Department of Transportation employee who had been targeted due to her low seniority. Olsen, a Capital Region resident, and some fellow employees launched a push for the revised contract that included a website, leaflets and phone calls.

She called the second vote "really encouraging. ... People didn't want their coworkers laid off."

The Capital Region's economy would have sustained a proportional but sizeable share of the reductions: More than 1,100 of the targeted positions were jobs in the area.

September's vote may have been a wake-up call even for those who weren't at risk of layoffs. Due to the state's complicated system of "bumping," thousands of additional workers would have received pay cuts by displacing employees who had less seniority.

That, along with PEF's history of approving contracts in past years, prompted the union to pull out all the stops in seeking ratification.

"I think there was more communication, more outreach," Cuomo said.

Cuomo's Director of State Operations Howard Glaser said the deal saves $165 million this year, and over its four-year term saves $250 million in health care costs.

The state budget for the current fiscal year counts on $450 million in savings from the state workforce. Glaser said that the state was on target to make its goal.

The PEF contract was similar in most respects to the deal that the larger but more blue-collar Civil Service Employees Association ratified in August. But it was shortened from five to four years, in response to PEF members' hopes the economy will improve, laying the groundwork for a possibly more generous agreement in the future.

Members won't get raises for the next three years, but will get a 2 percent boost in the final year of the contract. They will also see a significant rise in their share of health care insurance premium costs.

Both the CSEA and PEF contracts call for furloughs, but rather than the $1,000 bonus given to CSEA members, PEF workers will have their furloughs repaid bit by bit after the contract expires.

The administration still needs to work out contracts with United University Professions, which represents instructors and other professionals in the State University system, as well as the union for prison guards and law enforcement officers in state agencies such as SUNY campus police. Glaser said the talks will be expedited.

But the settled deals with PEF's 55,000 members and the 66,000 workers in CSEA complete the bulk of the governor's contract work for his current term of office.

And workers who just a day ago were worried about their futures could relax a bit.

"I'm going to go out to buy some Christmas presents this weekend," said Eric Scheffel, whose job at the Department of Economic Development had been under threat. "I wasn't going to do that."

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