Six-figure pensions more common for police, firef

[dave]

Six-figure pensions more common for police, firefighters
June 12, 2013



One out of every six police officers and firefighters retiring from state and local agencies outside New York City last year qualified for annual pensions of $100,000, according to state pension fund data posted today at SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website.

The proportion of 2012 Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS) retirees with six-figure pensions--a total of 202 out of 1,225 individuals--was the largest ever, according to an Empire Center analysis of data stretching back to 2000. As in previous years, the proportion of Employee Retirement System (ERS) members qualifying for $100,000 was much smaller—just 80 out of a total of 17,156, or 0.5 percent.

The pension for all employees retired in calendar year 2012 came to $69,379 for PFRS members and $24,855 for ERS members, including those who spent only a portion of their careers on government payrolls. However, newly retired PFRS and ERS members with at least 35 years of service were eligible for average pension benefits of $97,579 and $58,655, respectively, according to the system’s latest annual report.

Fully half of all PFRS retirees in 2012 qualified for a pension of more than $65,000 -- meaning they can collect a retirement benefit larger than the salary for all private and public-sector workers. The pension benefit is supplemented, in the vast majority of cases, by continuing taxpayer-subsidized health insurance coverage.

Continue at:

www.empirecenter.org/AboutUs/news_releases/2013/06/nyslrs061213b.cfm

Complete Report at:

www.empirecenter.org/Documents/PDF/2013%20NYSLRS1.pdf


This appears a little tippy with some slant. They don't compare the retirement incomes with normal salaries and they don't describe the kinds of jobs covered by the more common I think) Employee Retirement System.

That aside, this is a lot of money and I would think citizens of NY State would be asking what they are getting for their money.

OK, Corner's turn to comment.

[corner]

we worked for lower pay in lieu of benefits the pension figure isbased on your 3 highest years and it includes overtime figures payout for unused vacation and sick leave which all get added to the calculation..nothing unusual here if you are a state worker in the richest retirement systemin the country...our pensions are paid on the interest earned through wise investing y the state comtrollers office and the principal has not been touched in years tho both cuomos have tried 30 years ago we lobbied the legislature to make the pension system scared so that governors cant use it to balance the state budget a good move considering how it could be whittled away..3 dthings u don't mess with my pension my social security and my guns...I dare anyone who could have worked ;under the same conditions to have turned down a civil service job 30 years ago or even today

[dave]

Corner, good points. But, "pension figure is based on your 3 highest years and it includes overtime figures payout for unused vacation and sick leave which all get added to the calculation ..." Wow, that has to be the most generous arithmetic I've ever seen in a pension calculation, especially when overtime is stuffed into the last three years for the purpose of inflating the figure, or so I've heard. And anything like it is unheard of in private industry. Nothing comes close to it, except for so-called Golden Parachutes for senior management only.

"Our pensions are paid on the interest earned through wise investing y the state comtrollers office and the principal has not been touched in years." Yes, I've heard that, and so I don't understand why my local town (when I lived in NY) each year had to kick in more and more money and raise my taxes. Why was that?

[clarencebunsen]

I was always amazed by the campaign commercials of former NY Comptroller and thief Alan Hevesi. The ones in which he bragged of his wonderful investment strategy for the New York State Pension Fund and at the same time helped save New York seniors from the dangers of privatizing Social Security. I never did understand what he had to do with SS but a majority of New Yorkers obediently pulled the lever as directed.

He later served 20 months of a 1-4 year sentence for his "pay to play" scheme with the pension fund.

Municipal payments into the Pension Fund were kept artificially low for years by making very high projections of future earnings. This allowed mayors, county executives and governors to settle contracts with unsustainable future payouts. We are now facing the prospect of paying those due bills or moving.

[Deleted]

Utica's Municipal Housing executive director was recently removed. He was making over 100,000/yr as School Superintendant till they bought out his contract and he was above 100 grand when he was let go of the MHA. His retirement must be excellent.

[dave]

Jun 13, 2013 8:46:59 GMT -5 clarencebunsen said:

We are now facing to prospect of paying those due bills or moving.

Yup, I got that one covered.

[Clipper]

Sad isn't it Dave? I always dreamed of coming "home" to NY when my parents had passed on. No way would I even contemplate such a move any more.

The costs of living in NY are ridiculous and the way it keeps rising uncontrolled for the most part, is ludicrous. Not only do they drive the younger generation away to other states where the opportunities and employment are better, they are killing businesses. Between the state government and the federal government, small business is simply too costly to operate in the state of NY. The portion pointed toward tourism is fine. NY DOES have some of the most beautiful mountains, lakes, and other tourist attractions in the country.



Now they have a website and are recruiting with a propaganda program via the web and cable TV. We are seeing ads several times a day for "www.thenewny.com" on our cable networks. It is on about every hour or two, especially on weekends. Do you see that in NC Dave? Sadly the ads and the website promotes moving to NY with your business to take advantage of the business friendly atmosphere and the tax incentives. What they don't tell you is that when the tax incentives run out, the taxes and fees coupled with utilities and energy costs will be a huge burden to bear.

While NY is not the only state where the costs are so high, it darn sure is near the top of the list. The entire Northeast is expensive to live in with the costs of heating, highway maintenance and plowing, and other infrastructure items that are more costly than in the South or southern Midwest.

[clarencebunsen]

Except we will.

[corner]

im talking state employees local municipalities were allowed to discount their contibutions for years and when their employees were allowed to retire early with incentives in lieu of layoffs they had to start paying the piper for all those payment that were not made in full for may years if they paid what was due on time they wouldn't be in the trouble they are in the state retirement system only manages the local retirement systems and essentially are separate funds from the state retirement system which is at around 180 billion dollars today..i don't believe local retirements are included in this figure

[clarencebunsen]

That's kind of what I said, we fudged the numbers on requirements to fund future obligations by assuming unrealistic returns. We keep coming up with ways to deny the real obligations. Here is an analysis of this year's proposal:

The comptroller already has pushed the envelope by allowing local employers to borrow a portion of their pension increase from the pension fund itself, to be repaid in annual installments over 10 years. Less than two years ago, Cuomo himself vetoed a bill that would have allowed school districts to bond out a portion of their pension increases. The governor said it would "breach the trust placed in me by the people of this state" and create debt without voter approval.


The pension problem is a real one. After the historic boom of the 1990s, pension fund investment returns turned especially volatile in the past decade, culminating in massive losses between 2007 and 2009. Because employee contributions are both minimal and fixed, taxpayer-funded contribution rates have had to make up the difference, rising from a low of just above zero in 2000 to the projected 2013-14 levels of up to 16.5 percent for teachers, 28.9 percent for police and firefighters and 28.9 percent for other municipal workers. Localities and school districts have been hit with massive pension increases when they can least afford it.

www.empirecenter.org/Articles/2013/01/atu012913b.cfm

You can make the system work for a bit if you dump enough money into it and ignore what is needed to fund future benefits. That method can work even with indifferent management or awarding management contracts based on who pays the biggest bribe. At least it works for the short term.

[Deleted]

Yep, good 'ol SeeThroughNY funded by the Manhattan Institute funded by corporate interests on Wall St. such as Citibank, BOA, & other corporate giants who thru greed & thievery blew up the economy in '07 causing pension funds such as the NYSRS to lose billions on their investments. Now these same thieving bastards have the gall to attack pensions earned by public safety officer's & other middle class worker's? Where was the Manhattan Institute when Wall St. was driving the economy into the ground? They were earning millions off of outright thievery & not one of these dirtbags has been held accountable for what they did. Not one. No, they got millions in bonuses paid for on the backs of the middle class.

The Manhattan Institute. Guess who their puppet is. Prince Andy, our esteemed guv. Another millionaire trust fund baby looking out for the rest of us. Yea, right.

[dave]

To most NY State homeowners, it's not about Wall St. bankers, high finance or the like. It's about local property taxes. There may be many reasons why they are high, but certainly not helping the situation are the high paying pensions and costly medical plans (without adequate cost sharing) for government retirees. They are WAY out of line with industry. As are salaries in many cases. When did did it become OK for teachers to be the best paid workers in town?
When did it become OK for government retirees to be in an income class all by themselves? I know a retired teaching couple whose retirement income amounts to more than $150,000 per year. This as a reward for her teaching teenagers to bake cookies for over 30 years (Home Ec) while he taught little kids to play the kazoo (Primary Music). Sorry, I just don't think those are critical enough skills in our society to earn such rewards. And yet salaries are increasing each year as standards lower and student outcomes falter. Over the past five years each of the school buildings s in my district in NY doubled the size of their parking lots to accommodate the increase in aides and clerical workers, throwing more money at problems without results. Police and Fire protection are lessened while budgets increase. Something's wrong here.

Corner is right in his assertion that few of us would have turned down these jobs had we known thirty or more years ago what pensions and benefits would be like.

Had we known.

[clarencebunsen]

[clarencebunsen]

It may be convenient to blame all our problems on a stock market decline five years ago but even a randomly managed fund should have recovered its value by now. An intelligently managed fund should have shown gains. We have the best fund managers political influence can procure so I would hope for at least average performance. From what I've read the NYS Pension Fund has more money than anytime in history. The problem is that it still isn't enough money to meet future obligations.

[Deleted]

Jun 14, 2013 9:26:52 GMT -5 dave said:

To most NY State homeowners, it's not about Wall St. bankers, high finance or the like. It's about local property taxes. There may be many reasons why they are high, but certainly not helping the situation are the high paying pensions and costly medical plans (without adequate cost sharing) for government retirees. They are WAY out of line with industry. As are salaries in many cases. When did did it become OK for teachers to be the best paid workers in town?
When did it become OK for government retirees to be in an income class all by themselves? I know a retired teaching couple whose retirement income amounts to more than $150,000 per year. This as a reward for her teaching teenagers to bake cookies for over 30 years (Home Ec) while he taught little kids to play the kazoo (Primary Music). Sorry, I just don't think those are critical enough skills in our society to earn such rewards. And yet salaries are increasing each year as standards lower and student outcomes falter. Over the past five years each of the school buildings s in my district in NY doubled the size of their parking lots to accommodate the increase in aides and clerical workers, throwing more money at problems without results. Police and Fire protection are lessened while budgets increase. Something's wrong here.

Corner is right in his assertion that few of us would have turned down these jobs had we known thirty or more years ago what pensions and benefits would be like.

Had we known.

Worried about state employee pensions? Tell it to Prince Andy who thru his policies has fired 60,000 state workers since he took office. The result? NYS, in 2012 paid out $529 million dollars to state employees in OVERTIME costs. How will that impact state employee pension costs when these people retire? When DiNapoli reported on this fiasco recently, The Prince was silent.

Oh, & by the way Dave. Last I heard state employees were paying 31% of their health ins. premiums. Sounds like cost sharing to me. And when did teacher's become pariahs because they earn good money? Oh, I get. They can earn a decent salary, but not too decent. Are cops & firefighter's next in line to be labeled & blamed for all the ills of this state's economy?