Capital NY – June 24, 2015
by Sally Goldenberg
As a final deal was rolled out in Albany on Tuesday dealing with mayoral control of city schools, an education tax credit and rent regulations, one hot-button issue in New York City was left on the cutting-room floor.
A proposal to revamp the disability pension system for the city’s uniformed work force, a priority of police and fire unions, was omitted from the agreement.
Proponents were disheartened, but said they would continue pushing to increase retirement benefits for those hired after 2009 to match those hired before then.
“You cannot have a system that treats their members differently,” said State Senator Diane Savino, a Staten Island and Brooklyn Democrat who supported the proposal.
Savino said the Democrat-led State Assembly refused to pass a twin measure to the one the Senate recently approved.
Continuing the status quo is a win for Mayor Bill de Blasio, who fought a joint effort by the uniformed unions and Governor Andrew Cuomo to give the post-2009 hires disability pensions equal to three-quarters of their final salaries, tax free.
Instead, the mayor recommended his own legislation that would have given the most severely injured workers the 75-percent pensions, while providing the rest of the newer hires disability pensions worth half their final salaries, which is the current rate. He proposed several other reforms, but his plan was not enough for the unions.
“We are very disappointed by the outcome of this long fight that the Uniformed Firefighters Association has led on behalf of more than 1,400 of the FDNY’s newest firefighters,” union president Steve Cassidy said. “We have argued vigorously from the start that all New York City firefighters should have the same disability protections, because all risk their lives equally. What remains true is that newer firefighters permanently disabled in the line of duty will be forced to survive in one of America’s most expensive cities on a disgraceful $27 per day.”
Cassidy had joined forces with Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association president Pat Lynch in the fight.
Multiple sources involved in the issue said the mayor’s past feud with Lynch, in which the union president blamed de Blasio for the murder of two police officers in December, spurred him to reject their request.
De Blasio and his aides have maintained their opposition was solely based on fiscal concerns; they estimated their proposal would cost $2 billion over 30 years and the union-backed bill would cost triple that amount.
“New York City taxpayers were spared an exorbitant unfunded mandate,” mayoral spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick said. “The administration remains committed to giving our city’s heroes the fair protection they need and deserve in the event of severe disability, without unfairly burdening taxpayers.”
A spokesman for the State Senate Republicans said the Assembly “should take up and pass” the same measure the Senate approved.
An Assembly spokesman declined to comment.
A spokeswoman for Cuomo referred to his recent remarks in the Daily News, in which he advised the mayor and unions to reach an agreement on the issue.
Altering pensions for New York City workers requires support in Albany. The Legislature needs permission from the City Council in the form of a “home rule message,” to make the change, but the Council instead sided with de Blasio.
The Senate bill would have circumvented the Council altogether by imposing the reform statewide.
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