The New Bad Days are about to get badder

 

 NY Post

More than 1,500 NYPD officers have either resigned or retired so far this year – on pace to be the biggest exodus of officers since the statistics have been available, The Post has learned.

Some 524 cops have resigned and 1,072 have retired as of May 31, NYPD pension stats obtained by The Post show.

The 1,596 total is a 38% spike from the same period in 2021, when 1,159 cops called it a career, and a staggering 46% climb from 2020, when 1,092 left the force by the same date.

Anti-cop hostility, bail reform, and rising crime have fed into frustration among the NYPD rank and file, according to one NYPD officer who recently fled for greener pastures at a Long Island police department after 6 1/2 years with the New York’s Finest. 

 The city is out of control — especially since bail reform,” according to the former Queens cop, who asked to be identified only as “Joe.” The mantra now is “get out while you still can.”

Joe’s patrol gig “got worse and worse” over time, he said.

“The last few years so many people had been leaving and manpower was so low that you’d go to work and you’d answer 25 to 30 jobs a day and you’re burnt out by the end of the day,” he said, adding, “there was no time for law enforcement” because it would be “radio run, radio run, radio run all day long.”

Even when he made an arrest, “they were back in the precinct picking up their property the same day.”

 

City payroll is bigger than ever

From the NY Times:

New York City is undergoing a rare explosion in city government: More people now work for the city — 287,002 full-time employees as of July — than at any other point in its modern history, with thousands more scheduled to join them.

The projected growth finds few parallels in other major American metropolises; most, like New York, trimmed their numbers after the financial crash of 2008. Some have rehired, though not at the level that New York has under Mayor Bill de Blasio.

But behind all the job growth is a complicated set of factors that explain the possible benefits and costs to the city, the mayor and his supporters. Unions will see new jobs for their members, but the city will see future pension costs rise.

And even if the city fails to fill all its projected job openings, there is a benefit: An unfilled job can be taken off the budget, enabling the de Blasio administration to claim so-called savings from the absence of thousands of workers who were not hired.

Every major agency is growing under Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, but some expansions seem to stand out: His latest budget would have the Sanitation Department’s number of civilian employees increasing by a third since 2014; the Department of Citywide Administrative Services’ by 20 percent; and the city information technology department’s by more than 50 percent.

The growth in full-time staffing has worried some budget experts, who fear a lack of fiscal discipline at City Hall, and greater pension obligations down the road.

People opposed to corruption in poll

From the Daily News:

Nearly nine in 10 New Yorkers say corruption in Albany is a serious problem, and 60% believe lawmakers’ jobs should be full time and any outside income banned.

The Siena College poll, released Monday, also found 55% said legislators should not get a bump from their current $79,500 salary even if outside income is outlawed.

And a whopping 84% say lawmakers who are convicted of crimes related to their service should be stripped of their pensions.

Silver will still collect hefty pension

From the Daily News:

He’s likely heading to prison, but convicted former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver will still collect a hefty state pension.

He’s enrolled in the most generous pension tier system. Silver should collect $90,750 a year, which is more than most New Yorkers make in the private sector.

That’s 75% of the $121,000 a year he was making while serving as speaker.

The state cannot go after the pension of state lawmakers or workers who started before November 2011 — even if convicted of crime.

Bill to end double-dipping

From the Daily News:

A Queens state senator wants to keep legislators from being able to collect a pension and salary at the same time.

Sen. Tony Avella (D-Queens) calls the double-dipping practice "disgraceful" and "highly unethical."

The Daily News reported on Monday how 18 current veteran state lawmakers have filed retirement papers in recent years after being re-elected so they could begin collecting their pensions while still serving.

Avella has a bill that would prohibit a lawmaker from collecting a pension while serving if that pension was earned from an elective public office.

"It would end once and for all this practice of double-dipping," he said. "You want to retire, retire."

DeBlasio rejects bill to aid vets

From the Observer:

Assemblywoman Amy Paulin of Scarsdale is accusing Mayor Bill de Blasio of not "understanding the military," after the mayor declined to support a bill that would allow servicemembers to purchase credit toward the public retirement system based on their years of service.

The bill, which was introduced in June by Paulin and state Sen. Bill Larkin, allows members of a public retirement system to obtain three years of service credit for up to three years of military duty if they were honorably discharged. The legislation also broadens the eligible servicemembers to include those who served in peacetime and adds military conflicts—like Bosnia and Afghanistan.

De Blasio supports a more narrow bill that would restrict the process to those who served in Afghanistan.

Councilman Eric Ulrich, chair of the council’s committee on veterans, chided the administration for not allowing veterans to collect the benefit.

“All veterans deserve the opportunity to buy back their military time so that it can be counted towards their pension,” Ulrich told POLITICO New York. “We should not discriminate any veteran especially those who served post 9/11 or in non-combat role. We are not giving them something for free. First of all, they earned it, and second of all, they have to pay for it.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo vetoed similar legislation last year, saying it was an unfunded mandate and should instead be dealt with in the state budget. Paulin said she had worked with the governor’s office since then to amend the bill.

NY in poor financial shape

From the Daily News:

New York ranks as one of the least fiscally sound states in the nation — but at least we’re not Illinois.

The Empire State ranked 46th among the states for its overall fiscal health, according to a study by George Mason University’s Mercatus Center.

“With barely sufficient cash to cover short-term spending, New York’s fiscal position showed several areas of stress,” wrote study author Eileen Norcross.

Only Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Illinois ranked lower.

Norcross cited New York’s unfunded pension liability of $30.8 billion and more than $57 billion in total debt as reasons for the state’s poor showing.

Crooked ex-Council Member to forfeit pension

From the Daily News:

Crooked former New York City Councilman Larry Seabrook must cough up his public pension payments to satisfy the $418,252 judgment against him, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara recently moved to seize Seabrook's state and city pensions because he had yet to pay a cent of the forfeiture order.

The 63-year-old Seabrook, who also served as a state assemblyman and senator, had argued against the move, saying state law protected his taxpayer-funded pensions.

But U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel said federal law took precedence over state statutes.

Now you know why they keep coming back

From the Times Ledger:

City Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz’s (D-Forest Hills) previous stint at City Hall is paying off — literally.

Filings with the city Conflicts of Interest Board show Koslowitz is collecting an at least $60,000 pension in addition to her $112,000 base salary.

Koslowitz, who represented the central Queens neighborhoods of Forest Hills, Rego Park and Kew Gardens in the City Council in the 1990s, was re-elected to a third term in 2013.

Her office noted she had worked for the pension and was entitled to collect it.

Bill wants everything built bigger

From the Huffington Post:

He has no objection to super-sized developments, a concept that seemingly flies in the face of his image as a leftist who hails from a Brooklyn neighborhood known for low-rise buildings and liberal politics.

"I hope people hear me loud and clear that the only way I can achieve my goals is if we are building and building aggressively," de Blasio said last month, saying he possessed a "willingness to use height and density to the maximum feasible extent."

De Blasio has vowed to pursue a policy of largely mandatory inclusionary zoning, which would require developers to set aside a portion of a building's units for poor and middle-class New Yorkers in exchange for authorization to build bigger and taller structures. Bloomberg only encouraged, and did not require, such measures.

The administration also wants to legalize some illegal basement apartments, change zoning rules in increasingly mixed-use neighborhoods, fight Albany for more rent-controlled apartments and direct $1 billion of city pension funds to the construction of lower-rent units.

HHC has gigantic budget gap

From Capital New York:

The city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation is facing a $430 million budget gap for fiscal year 2015, its president told the City Council’s health committee on Monday.

That gap is expected to triple to nearly $1.4 billion by 2018, said H.H.C. president Alan Aviles, who will soon be leaving the nation’s largest municipal hospital system.

The deficits can be attributed to damage from Hurricane Sandy as well as skyrocketing pension costs, but the most basic challenge is that H.H.C. treats hundreds of thousands of patients who can’t pay for the full costs of their care.

H.H.C. provides about $700 million in uncompensated care each year, and 80 percent of its patients are either on Medicaid or uninsured.

No wonder the city never has money

From the NY Post:

Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña will collect both a city salary and her pension for a total income of $412,193 a year — nearly twice as much as Mayor de Blasio is being paid.

Farina is getting a Department of Education salary of $212,614 — the same as her predecessor, Dennis Walcott, officials told The Post.

But she will also continue to collect her $199,579-a-year DOE pension, which she received upon retiring in 2006 after a 40-year career in the city schools.

“She’s earned her pension, and she’s worth every dime of her salary,” said Phil Walzak, a spokesman for de Blasio.

A Jan. 1 letter offer by de Blasio, signed by Farina, states she will additionally get the DOE’s managerial-benefits package, including vacation and sick-leave allowance.

She can take a $1,000-a-year bonus to opt out of health and welfare benefits, which she already gets as a city pensioner.

She also gets a car and a driver.

Her total income will far exceed that of de Blasio, whose salary is set at $225,000.

He gambled with and lost other people's money

From the NY Post:

City Comptroller John Liu’s costly pension-investment strategy resulted in nearly $2 billion in lost earnings last fiscal year, a former pension chief claims.

Liu touts a combined 12.1 percent return on investments in fiscal year 2013, when the city’s five pension funds grew from $111.3 billion to $124.8 billion.

But that rate is inflated by adding cash-flow unrelated to investments into the equation, said John Murphy, the former executive director of NYCERS, the city’s largest pension system.

The true rate of return is 10.5 percent, Murphy calculates. That’s less than the 12.2 percent the city could have earned — another $1.9 billion — if it invested the money in reliable, low-cost S&P 500 Index and Core Bond funds and avoided risky, expensive hedge funds, private equity and real-estate investments.

Taxpayers are on the hook for pension costs when investments fall short. Mayor Bloomberg’s FY 2014 operating budget plows $8.2 billion into the pension system, up from $1.5 billion in 2001.

City taxpayers, by law, must repay the 2013 management fees in 2015 — at 7 percent interest for two years.

A Liu spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, as public advocate, sat on the board of trustees of NYCERS, which approved the investment strategy. His spokeswoman did not return a call for comment.

U.S. Attorney to go after crooked pols' pensions

From the Queens Chronicle:

The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York is upping the ante in his fight against political corruption in the state, telling the governor’s Moreland Commission that his office will start going after the pensions of public officials who are convicted of crimes.

And an unscientific survey of elected officials from Queens elicited that legal changes and legal challenges will be forthcoming.

Speaking before the commission at Pace University in Manhattan on Sept. 17, Preet Bharara said his aim is a simple one.

“Convicted politicians should not grow old comfortably cushioned by a pension paid for by the very people they betrayed in office,” Bharara said in a copy of his testimony released by his office.

The commission was appointed this past summer by Gov. Cuomo following a spate of corruption charges against state and city officials in the preceding months.

“I understand the sentiment — people should not be rewarded for bad acts,” Assemblyman Bill Scarborough (D-Jamaica) said. “I think the United States Attorney will move forward, and I think there will be a legal test where this will be determined.”

Published reports quote Gov. Cuomo as saying there may be state constitutional concerns with Bharara’s proposal, a concern Scarborough shares.

Scarborough and state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), who said he is in favor of the idea, also believe that a 2011 law aimed at those elected after that year may be unclear in regard to Bharara’s efforts.

“If it’s not in existing legislation, I’ll introduce it,” Avella said. “Again, only if you are convicted. It’s absolutely a disgrace that you can abuse the public trust and still get a pension.” He said private pensions earned by those same individuals should not be subject to any bill he puts forth.

When lobbyists get public pensions

From the AP:

As a lobbyist in New York's statehouse, Stephen Acquario is doing pretty well. He pulls down $204,000 a year, more than the governor makes, gets a Ford Explorer as his company car and is afforded another special perk:

Even though he's not a government employee, he is entitled to a full state pension.

He's among hundreds of lobbyists in at least 20 states who get public pensions because they represent associations of counties, cities and school boards, an Associated Press review found. Legislatures granted them access decades ago on the premise that they serve governments and the public. In many cases, such access also includes state health care benefits.

But several states have started to question whether these organizations should qualify for such benefits, since they are private entities in most respects: They face no public oversight of their activities, can pay their top executives private-sector salaries and sometimes lobby for positions in conflict with taxpayers. New Jersey and Illinois are among the states considering legislation that would end their inclusion.

God bless America!

From the NY Post:

Two City Council members have been in public service for so long, they’re collecting government pay from three sources — salary, pension and Social Security, according to newly released financial-disclosure forms.

Oliver Koppell (D-Bronx) — one of the wealthiest members of the City Council — and Karen Koslowitz (D-Queens) each collected income on top of their $122,500 council salaries.

Koppell took in as much as $60,000 in pension from his longtime gig as a state assemblyman, and between $5,000 and $44,000 in Social Security.

Koslowitz took in between $60,000 and $100,000 in pension payouts last year for working a previous stint on the council and as Queens Deputy Borough President until she rejoined the council in 2010.

Koslowitz also earned between $5,000 and $44,000 in Social Security last year and has between $10,000 and $88,000 in credit card debt.

Liu shelves pension plan

From the NY Post:

Embattled city Comptroller John Liu has scrapped his controversial plan for an overhaul of the city’s pension system, The Post has learned.

Larry Schloss, Liu’s chief investment officer and deputy overseeing the pension funds, has alerted insiders the proposal is dead, sources said.

With the backing of Mayor Bloomberg, Liu announced with much fanfare last fall a plan to cut the city’s five pension boards out of investment decisions and consolidate that power in new professional management.

But the proposal drew opposition from union leaders, who said they weren’t consulted by Liu before being asked to turn over much of the oversight on pension investments.

Sources told The Post that Liu’s decision to pull the plug on the pension-board overhaul was meant as an “olive branch” for union leaders.

Liu, meanwhile, is salvaging part of the plan that does not require Albany or union approval. He has increased the number of in-house investment staffers by 59 percent.

State Dems against pension reform

From the NY Post:

State lawmakers passed a landmark bill this morning to cut pension benefits for future public employees — saving the city about $22 billion over 30 years.

The state and other localities would save around $60 billion.

"This bold and transformational pension reform plan is a historic win for New York taxpayers and municipalities," Gov. Cuomo said. "Without this critical reform, New Yorkers would have seen significant tax increases, as well as layoffs to teachers, firefighters and police."

The "pension Tier VI" bill, praised by Mayor Bloomberg, received final passage from the Assembly 93-45 around 7 a.m.- after a struggle to round up enough votes from reluctant majority Democrats. It passed the state Senate earlier this morning.

Gov. Cuomo, on the brink of another major victory, makes his case for pension reform yesterday

The bill capped an all-night session and was part of a mega-deal to expand the state’s DNA databank, move toward legalization of casinos and redraw state legislative district lines.

Gov. Cuomo’s original pension proposal would have saved $113 billion over the next three decades.

But he agreed to concessions demanded by lawmakers who are all up for re-election this year and rely on donations and political ­organizing from unions that strongly opposed the Cuomo plan.

From the NY Post:

Pension reform could be in jeopardy.

Even though Gov. Cuomo signed the state’s newest pension tier into law yesterday, state officials now fear a court challenge to the plan on the grounds that it was illegally approved by the state Senate.

Democrats have claimed that majority-party Republicans lacked enough senators present in the chamber for a legitimate vote on the bill.

Most Senate Democrats had stormed out of the chamber earlier to protest a limit on debate over a separate redistricting bill.
But Sen. Daniel Squadron (D-Brooklyn) stayed to argue that the Senate lacked the minimum of 38 senators needed for what he called the budget-related pension bill.

With only the 32 majority Republicans, Squadron and the four breakaway “Independent Democratic Conference” members in the Senate, just 37 of all 62 senators were in the chamber.

Republicans insisted that the pension-reform bill wasn’t budget-related and therefore didn’t require three-fifths of the Senate to be present.

Though Senate Democrats and anti-Tier VI unions yesterday denied having any plans to sue over the vote, a high-level state source said, “We expect that a lawsuit will be filed, either by the Senate Democrats or one of the public-employee unions that are trying to fight this."

You don't always get what you pay for

From the NY Post:

It’s no secret that commuters are likely to face steep MTA fare and toll hikes in 2013...and again in 2015 — but New Yorkers might also want to know how all that money is going to be spent.

Alas, they might not like the answer.

Because, as it turns out, every last penny from the fare and toll bumps will be gobbled up by the hungry hungry hippos of the Transport Workers Union.
That’s right: Even though the 7.5% fare and toll hikes will raise almost $1.9 billion cumulatively over the next four years, the cost of TWU benefits — including, notably, pensions — will surge by an alarming $2.4 billion over that same time span.

That’s about 26% more than the fare hike.

In other words, all your extra fare and toll dollars will go into the union’s already well-padded retirement and health-care accounts.

That was the painful message from an MTA official who spoke at the City Council’s Transportation Committee on Tuesday. He warned that even as straphangers are forced to dig deeper than ever, they won’t be getting any bang for their buck — or see any of the recently canceled bus and subway service restored.

Meanwhile, commuters will have to pony up: MetroCards are expected to shoot up to $167 a month by 2017, according to transit advocate Gene Russianoff — which is just a nose shy of $2,000 a year.

Here's Johnny!

From the NY Post:

Liu cheerfully admits: “The city is spending more money than it takes in.” But he won’t admit that the biggest reason is public-worker pensions and health benefits, which cost $16 billion a year. He’s mum about health benefits and on pensions insists everything is great.

He insists that new public workers don’t have to make any of the changes that Gov. Cuomo has suggested: working longer, contributing more or shifting to private-pension accounts. Instead, Liu claims we can fix the pension crisis with some housekeeping — saving money on fees to the managers who invest the city’s pension funds and getting better returns on those investments.

Cutting fees is fine. But chasing higher returns usually means taking greater risk — meaning taxpayers, who guarantee pension benefits, could pay even more in the future.

Nor does either move come close to solving the problem.

Liu wants to gamble with pension money in another way, too — by increasing the pension funds’ role as a political slush fund. The city already puts $1 billion in pension-fund money into “economically targeted investments” — such as “affordable” housing. Liu would expand such investments to small businesses — likely minting campaign donors interested in this cash.

His other big idea is taxes — raising them for people who make more than half a million dollars a year. In his speech, he said “equality” is just as important as economic recovery.

Yet the “top 1 percent” pays 43.2 percent of city income taxes, on earnings that comprise 33.8 percent of city incomes. If a few of these taxpayers leave town, New York would end up losing money, thanks to the tax hikes.