FreeEnergy
12th July 2012, 02:02 PM
Padded Pensions Add to New York Fiscal Woes
In Yonkers, more than 100 retired police officers and firefighters are collecting pensions greater than their pay when they were working. One of the youngest, Hugo Tassone, retired at 44 with a base pay of about $74,000 a year. His pension is now $101,333 a year.
It’s what the system promised, said Mr. Tassone, now 47, adding that he did nothing wrong by adding lots of overtime to his base pay shortly before retiring. “I don’t understand how the working guy that held up their end of the bargain became the problem,” he said.
Despite a pension investigation by the New York attorney general, an audit concluding that some police officers in the city broke overtime rules to increase their payouts and the mayor’s statements that future pensions should be based on regular pay, not overtime, these practices persist in Yonkers.
In fact, the cost of public pensions has been systemically underestimated nationwide for more than two decades, say some analysts. By these estimates, state and local officials have promised $5 trillion worth of benefits while thinking they were committing taxpayers to roughly half that amount.
The use of public money for outsize retirement pay really stings when budgets don’t balance, teachers are being laid off, furloughs are being planned and everything from poison-control centers to Alzheimer’s day care is being cut, as is happening in New York.
According to pension data collected by The New York Times from the city and state, about 3,700 retired public workers in New York are now getting pensions of more than $100,000 a year, exempt from state and local taxes.
...
Before Yonkers adopted a richer pension formula for police in 2000, for instance, it was told the maximum cost would be $1.3 million a year. But instead, the yearly cost is now $3.75 million and rising.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/business/economy/21pension.html?pagewanted=all
and one more:
Overtime pays big dividends when some WNY police officers retire
Patrick McDonald keeps setting records. When last heard from, the 59-year-old police officer had accumulated more than $123,000 in overtime last year, and his $189,000 in total earnings was a record high for the Buffalo Police Department.
Now, McDonald’s pension is record setting, too.
At $105,361 annually, McDonald’s pension is not only the highest of any retired police officer in Buffalo, it’s also among the highest — possibly the highest — pensions of any municipal employee in all of Western New York.
...
The average pension among the 50 retired Buffalo police officers was $48,000, but of those whose salary topped $100,000 in the three years before retirement, the average pension was $67,600, The News found.
The average pension among 19 suburban police officers who retired since January 2007 from Cheektowaga, Tonawanda and Amherst departments was $60,500
Many suburban police officers — including the police chiefs — get golden parachutes when they retire, taking advantage of sick leave and vacation buyback provisions to boost their final year’s pay to more than $150,000. In the case of two chiefs who retired, it was $200,000.
Of the 50 police officers in Buffalo who retired since last year, 16 earned $15,000 or more in overtime in a single year during the final years of their careers, and 12 increased their income to more than $100,000 in a single year.
The other 11 retirees — those who qualify for one-year pensions — included seven who boosted their income by more than $10,000 in a single year, with three pumping their pay up by more than $50,000.
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/special-reports/article75579.ece
Just an idea. if a guy even makes $60K pension and $30K school salary at 45 and plans to have it for another 20 years, that's almost $2 million dollars per person.
In Yonkers, more than 100 retired police officers and firefighters are collecting pensions greater than their pay when they were working. One of the youngest, Hugo Tassone, retired at 44 with a base pay of about $74,000 a year. His pension is now $101,333 a year.
It’s what the system promised, said Mr. Tassone, now 47, adding that he did nothing wrong by adding lots of overtime to his base pay shortly before retiring. “I don’t understand how the working guy that held up their end of the bargain became the problem,” he said.
Despite a pension investigation by the New York attorney general, an audit concluding that some police officers in the city broke overtime rules to increase their payouts and the mayor’s statements that future pensions should be based on regular pay, not overtime, these practices persist in Yonkers.
In fact, the cost of public pensions has been systemically underestimated nationwide for more than two decades, say some analysts. By these estimates, state and local officials have promised $5 trillion worth of benefits while thinking they were committing taxpayers to roughly half that amount.
The use of public money for outsize retirement pay really stings when budgets don’t balance, teachers are being laid off, furloughs are being planned and everything from poison-control centers to Alzheimer’s day care is being cut, as is happening in New York.
According to pension data collected by The New York Times from the city and state, about 3,700 retired public workers in New York are now getting pensions of more than $100,000 a year, exempt from state and local taxes.
...
Before Yonkers adopted a richer pension formula for police in 2000, for instance, it was told the maximum cost would be $1.3 million a year. But instead, the yearly cost is now $3.75 million and rising.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/business/economy/21pension.html?pagewanted=all
and one more:
Overtime pays big dividends when some WNY police officers retire
Patrick McDonald keeps setting records. When last heard from, the 59-year-old police officer had accumulated more than $123,000 in overtime last year, and his $189,000 in total earnings was a record high for the Buffalo Police Department.
Now, McDonald’s pension is record setting, too.
At $105,361 annually, McDonald’s pension is not only the highest of any retired police officer in Buffalo, it’s also among the highest — possibly the highest — pensions of any municipal employee in all of Western New York.
...
The average pension among the 50 retired Buffalo police officers was $48,000, but of those whose salary topped $100,000 in the three years before retirement, the average pension was $67,600, The News found.
The average pension among 19 suburban police officers who retired since January 2007 from Cheektowaga, Tonawanda and Amherst departments was $60,500
Many suburban police officers — including the police chiefs — get golden parachutes when they retire, taking advantage of sick leave and vacation buyback provisions to boost their final year’s pay to more than $150,000. In the case of two chiefs who retired, it was $200,000.
Of the 50 police officers in Buffalo who retired since last year, 16 earned $15,000 or more in overtime in a single year during the final years of their careers, and 12 increased their income to more than $100,000 in a single year.
The other 11 retirees — those who qualify for one-year pensions — included seven who boosted their income by more than $10,000 in a single year, with three pumping their pay up by more than $50,000.
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/special-reports/article75579.ece
Just an idea. if a guy even makes $60K pension and $30K school salary at 45 and plans to have it for another 20 years, that's almost $2 million dollars per person.