Capital NY – June 17, 2015
by Jimmy Vielkind
ALBANY—Pension changes for disabled police officers and firefighters from New York City might get rolled into a still-forming omnibus “big ugly” bill alongside changes to state housing laws.
Unions representing the public safety workers are pushing a bill—which has passed the Republican-controlled State Senate but is stalled in the Democrat-dominated Assembly—that would give members hired after 2009 three-quarter pay if they are forced to retire because they become disabled.
The unions argue this creates parity between older and newer workers and undoes a disparity created by state lawmakers in 2009, when then-governor David Paterson vetoed what legislators thought was a routine extender bill.
Governor Andrew Cuomo called that veto a “mistake” and said during a rally with the unions last week that it was a question of “fairness,” not money. Cuomo has been a champion of lowering pension costs, but in this case, the state law change would only affect the books of his “friend,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. City Hall aides argue the union’s bill would cost too much.
“The mayor’s proposal delivers for our workers without rolling back governor Cuomo’s vital reforms to our pension system to protect the taxpayer—reforms that the legislature itself passed and the governor signed only a few years ago,” said Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for the New York City Office of Management and Budget.
Assemblyman Peter Abbate, a Democrat from South Brooklyn known for his close relationship to public sector unions, said he was “afraid” a standalone version of the bill would be legally challenged. Under pressure from de Blasio, the New York City Council passed a home rule message for a City Hall-sponsored pension plan, but has not acted similarly for the unions’ bill.
“The only way that gets done is a big bill, a big ugly that it gets included in. We try not to supersede the City Council home rule message procedure,” Abbate told Capital. “That’s why Cuomo had the unions up here last week, when they had the rally. … The unions were working with him on that.”
State Senator Marty Golden, a Republican from Bay Ridge, shepherded the unions’ bill through his chamber last month. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, emerging from a closed-door session with with Cuomo and Senate Republican leader John Flanagan, confirmed the pension issue was still in the mix.
“There’s still some discussions around the pension issue for the city of new York, for the police and firefighters, and that’s one of the issues we’re going to see if we can resolve,” he said.
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