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A funny thing happened on Bloomberg's radio address yesterday. When asked by a sanitation worker about the famously intricate residency requirements for city employees (they must live in the city, though fire, police and correction officers may also live in Westchester Rockland, Putnam, Oragne, Nassau or Suffolk counties and medics and probation officers can live anywhere in the state) the Mayor responded that he would review the issue. A flat out "not going to change" was the expected answer.
While the Mayor's response was probably an election-year tactic, or maybe a union negotiating tool (sanitation workers have been going without a new contract since 2002) it does bring up a perennial New York question: Should we require our city employees to live where they work? Personally, we're all for the restrictions as they keep workers in touch with the city (and keep good tax money in town) but considering some municipal salaries we understand the desire to live elsewhere. What do you think of residency requirements?
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Of course city employees should be required to live in the 5 boroughs - no exceptions. If we can't get that then the commuter tax should be restored - you can thank Joe bruno and Sheldon Silver for caving on that one. Oh and another thing - the municipal employees should be getting paid more regardless, but this is a dificult city to make that a reality - it's just too damn big! If all the hipster tourists moved back to Ohio we could reduce the strain on the economy a bit.
nycguy, tourism is a $25 billion a year industry for the city. You want tourists here, whether they're hipsters from Ohio or grannies from Texas. They have this odd habit of giving money to hotels, shops, restaurants, museums, cabbies, theatres, and sometimes even come back to visit again. Sorry if their being uncool bugs you.
Secondly, lots of city employees can't afford to live decently in the city, which is why they are in places like the burbs. Many of them (especially cops, firepeople, teachers, and general office folk) would simply quit their city jobs before having to move.
If you want to bring the commuter tax back, then how about we also give those folks voting rights in the city as well? No taxation without representation, right? You'll see plenty of jobs leave for the burbs (or even NJ or CT) if that monstrosity returns. The city's own payroll tax is dumb enough.
City employees not making enough money isn't because the city is too big, it's because it's been poorly run (billions wasted) on many fronts for decades.
hey nycguy, i work for the city, i live in the city, and pay taxes in the city. i am originally from ohio. maybe i am even a hipster. so how am i "straining" the "economy"?
leave ohio out of it, dude. there are no jobs there anyway.
I remember reading somewhere that the average NYC cop earns about $75,000 per year which presumably includes overtime. The starting salary might be in the $25K range, but after 5-1/2 years the base pay is up to $59,588. And don’t forget that somewhere in the range of 30% of all NYC cops retire on disability retirement pay which is not taxed. This controversial, very high percentage is unique to NYC only; the percentage of cops on disability retirement in the rest of the U.S. is substantially lower.
For more details about salary and benefits, see the NYPD’s own recruiting ad:
http://www.nypd2.org/html/recruit/salary.html.
Plenty of people in NYC get by with less.
Not such a bad deal after all.
It's pretty tough for a NYC cop to retire with a disability pension. No clue where you get your 30% figure from. And for what it's worth, the city pays mechanics who repair police cars more than it pays police officers, even after they've been on the job for 5 years. The $25k for new cops means they qualify nicely for public housing and food stamps though. Wonderful way to reward people who put their lives on the line daily (plenty of people in NYC don't do this).
The removal of the residency requirment would be great but would be better would be the Mayor proposing or suggesting this at any point in time prior to now. This is, like most of what the Mayor does not, an election year ploy.
Why would the mayor worry about the change in rules?
Most cops and fdny don't live within the five boroughs and therefore can't vote in nyc elections.
I don't understand why other nyc employees have the residency rules and emergency first responders don't. Wouldn't you want a cop that lives nearby in case of another WTC 911 instead of cops that live way out in Holtsville or Nanuet or Ossining or Pearl river or the many other Rockland cty towns.
I second saying like it is's comment on how many NYC's live here making less. I would think their main expense would be a car but there is no requirement that they need a car to be a cop, just a driver's license.
Richard Melito Sr., ex-police officer living on retirement disability. Has been working as his son manager richie melito jr.professional boxing name "BULL", for over ten years. Richie Melito Sr. has been screwing the Government and getting paid. He even got away from going to prison when FBI found the fights were fixed to get his son promoted. This man is an expert!!!!