No problem for employees living outside NYC

From Capital New York:

Eight members of the de Blasio administration were granted permission last year to skirt residency laws and live outside New York City, according to documents obtained by Capital on Friday from a Freedom of Information request.

By comparison, three waivers were given in 2013 and eight were granted in 2012.

In each letter, agency heads requested the exemptions be granted because the employees could not move for personal reasons, often family-related, but that they either possessed a unique skill or the agency needed to broaden its candidate pool.

Does NYC need this many employees on its payroll?

From the Daily News:

Thanks to a surge in tax revenues and a boost in state funding, Mayor de Blasio has added more than 3,000 people to the municipal workforce since taking office in January, new records show.

There were 274,447 full-time municipal employees as of Sept. 30, up from 271,296 on Dec. 31, a 1.16% increase.

Two-thirds of the new workers — about 2,000 — were hired for the mayor's universal pre-kindergarten program, plus new special education teachers, both funded by the state, officials said.

De Blasio has also added about 200 civilian employees to the NYPD in an effort to shift cops in desk jobs to the street, and he's added traffic enforcement agents for his Vision Zero push to cut pedestrian deaths. The Department of Transportation's staff has also grown by more than 140 for the Vision Zero effort, and the Health Department has added more than 230 workers to inspect pre-K classrooms, provide health programs for new moms and their kids, and combat rats.

While many companies in the private sector face relentless pressure to slash jobs, the trend in city government has been steadily upward — the workforce has grown under each of the last five mayors, increasing when tax revenues rise and falling only in tough economic times.

The city has added nearly 80,000 workers since 1980, an increase of more than 40%, according to data reviewed by the Daily News.

Public employees need to pony up

From Crain's:

Public employees should contribute to their health premiums to help stem the steady increase in health costs for the city, a new report by the Citizens Budget Commission recommends.

Today, more than 90% of city workers are enrolled in health insurance plans that require no employee contribution toward the cost of the premium, the budget watchdog found. Requiring current workers and retirees to chip in for their health insurance would drive down the city’s deficit and bring New York in line with other large cities that have employee contributions.

“The city has an unusual arrangement as compared to the private sector,” said Maria Doulis, director of city studies at the CBC, and the report’s principal author. “Nobody is offering health insurance to employees and retirees on as generous a basis as the city of New York.”

The cost of health insurance for city public employees and retirees has skyrocketed in the last 10 years to $4.8 billion in 2012 from $2 billion in 2002. The CBC cites this growth as a major driver of projected budget gaps. While the total city budget is projected to grow 11% from fiscal years 2012 to 2016, health insurance costs will grow by almost 40% and comprise 70% of the projected budget gap in 2016.

Time for public employees to pay their fair share

From the NY Post:

Amid its budget crisis, the city is on track to lay off teachers, close fire companies, cut social services and impose other sacrifices. Yet such reductions could be avoided if the city reformed its unusually costly commitments for retiree health-insurance and brought them in line with those of other public-sector employers.

Retired city employees can remain on the city's health insurance without paying any part of the basic premium; when they enroll in Medicare, the city reimburses the cost of their Part B premiums. By contrast, health insurance for retirees is rarely offered in the private sector. And in most states, retired public employees must pay a substantial share of the premium.

Providing this benefit for New York City retirees is a big and growing burden on local taxpayers. Retiree health insurance cost $1.5 billion in the current year and is projected to be $2.2 billion by 2015 -- a growth of 50 percent in just four years.

Some City Council members have suggested tapping into the city's Retiree Health Insurance Trust fund to avert the cuts, but that's the wrong end of the right solution. Tapping into the trust would simply take away money that is already set aside to help address existing retiree health-insurance obligations. What's needed is to change those obligations, which have already created a $70 billion unfunded liability.

That's something that the city can do in collaboration with municipal labor unions -- because, unlike public pensions, which are protected by the state Constitution, retiree health-insurance benefits are not guaranteed.