Wednesday, September 30, 2015

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.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

So what's the financial giveaway per worker here. $30-50k? What a waste. Their pension is rich enough already.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand. Some upstate assemblywoman had a bill that would require NYC to do something - WITHOUT PAYING FOR IT.
De Blasio chose not to support an Albany law which would impose spending on the city.
Why is this news? Any good mayor would do that.
Regardless of how nice it is to help veterans, if NYC is going to help veterans it should be NYC's choice.

Anonymous said...

"Paulin said the $15.7 million figure represents the cost if every eligible veteran were to apply for the program."

Every one won't apply, and $15.7M out of the NYC budget is a pittance anyway. Clearly, you don't understand. We spend more money on advertising universal pre-K.

Anonymous said...

These vets are betting that all pension liabilities will be honored in the future at 100 cents to the dollar.

Detroit is coming to New York.

Invest dollars today in sometime other than this "purchase credits" scheme. You will thank me later.

Anonymous said...

How many of Albany pols are themselves vets?

(sarc) said...

Suddenly the Governor is concerned with an unfunded mandate?

The ENTIRE NYS/NYC pension plan is unfunded to the tune of 300 Billion (with a "B").

This is another ponzi scheme, in the real world they would be sitting in jail like Madoff. But the Pols get away with this.

The house of cards will come crashing down and we will be detroit...

http://www.statebudgetsolutions.org/publications/detail/promises-made-promises-broken-2014-unfunded-liabilities-hit-47-trillion

Anonymous said...

This makes my f--ing blood boil. Dumbass mayor can find millions of dollars for his pre-k crap and homeless. But ask for money to help veteran now he can't find the money. Maybe he should send his pot smoking/depressed daughter and afro wearing son to join the military. I bet he would change his mind then.

(sarc) said...

Statistically the military votes republican/conservative.

Why "waste" money with no return on the investment?

Just like the POTUS, he HATES the military...

Anonymous said...

Warren Wilhelm Jr.(Comrade Bill)will never support PATRIOTS. Today his NY City Council declared (ETHEL ROSENBERG DAY ), a Marxist /communist spy who with her traitor husband & brother -in -law stole the ATOM BOMB secrets and delivered them to Josef Stalin,USSR ,the mass murderer of millions of people.The ROSENBERG

spys were executed.

Read: "witness" Whittikare Chambers, who broke from the Marxist Underground in 1938,former Time Inc editor.testified VS Alger Hiss who was jailed.
Venona:Decoding Soviet Espinage in America,Harvey Klehr.."In Denial:Historians,Communism & Espionage

Anonymous said...

Hmmmmm...red lipstick and a red blouse?
And a little shopworn looking too.