NY Daily News – June 11, 2015
by Glenn Blain , Erin Durkin
In a last-minute move, the City Council threw its support behind Mayor de Blasio’s contentious plans for pensions for injured cops and firefighters with a vote on Wednesday.
The divided Council sided with the mayor instead of a more generous plan favored by unions that would fully restore the benefits that newly-hired officers got before 2009.
“We are proud to support a plan that strikes a fair balance between safeguarding our city’s uniformed officers and our city’s finances,” said Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who brushed off charges that the body had bent over backwards to push through de Blasio’s bill.
“This is not about doing anyone’s bidding,” she said. “This is about being responsible to the city of New York financially, while taking care of our officers.”
The “home rule” message giving instructions to Albany, which has the final say, passed by a vote of 31-17, with three members abstaining.
The mayor’s proposal would give service members hired after 2009 75% of their salary if they qualify for Social Security disability, and 50% if they don’t. It would improve upon current disability benefits, but unions want everyone to get the same 75% regardless of when they’re hired. They also want illnesses like cancer and lung disease to be considered job-related.
The Council’s move came as fire and police unions had traveled to Albany for a major rally on the same issue, and a notice went out that the item had been added to the agenda just half an hour before a committee meeting.
A competing bill to back the union disability plan, introduced last year, never got a vote despite the support of a veto-proof majority of Council members.
“It flies in the face of what they claim to be an open and transparent Council,” said Jim Slevin, a vice president with the Uniformed Firefighters Association. “We had 41 members in support of that bill, yet the speaker won’t allow a vote on that bill.”
Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Queens), who sponsored the union-backed proposal, urged members to reject the mayor’s plan.
“It does not fix the problem of inequality,” she said. “At a time when our city budget is growing, with over $500 million in new proposed programs, do we really need to find a cost savings on the backs of our Bravest and Finest?”
The mayor’s office says their plan would cost the city $150 million, whereas the looser rules would cost $400 million.
Yet Gov. Cuomo sided with the unions during a rally with them at the Capitol.
“This is blatantly unfair. How do you justify paying the New York City police officers and firefighters less than anyone else in the state? There is no rationale for it whatsoever,” he said. ”I understand the state had a fiscal crisis but you have to be fair, you have to be decent with people.”
Cuomo later said he hoped de Blasio and union heads would reach a deal on the issue, since there’s no guarantee state legislation will pass by the end of the session next week.
De Blasio seized on the Council vote to tout his own plan and said unions are asking for too much.
“The plan that has been put forward by the unions would take us back to so many of the excesses of the past that led us to the reality of huge long-term liabilities,” he said. “New York City has spoken. Both the mayor and the City Council have spoken with one voice.”
With Jennifer Fermino
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