Sounds like this mainly affects the Police and Fire Department employees.

No, it's just those are the first to speak out about it, while others are still learning of it

But especially the NYPD which by far has the largest percentage of early and/or so-called "disabled" retirees.

Love Bloomberg... absolutely has to be done.

I agree with Bloomberg on this, but unfortunately like every politician, he made hideous pension guarantees as a platform for his two reelections. I get why politicians can't tackle the dicey subjects right off the bat, but they all dig themselves (and the taxpayers) too deep before deciding to side with reality.

The fact that NY State is one of just 2 or 3 states that allow on the way out the door, about to retire employees rack up outsize pensions for stacking overtime in their last 3 years on the job is total bullshit. Unions will naturally oppose this, but to do so blindly is hiding from the truth at the expense of NY City & State. Pension reform is a must, but no one has the spine. When will politicians get elected for promising to reform these overblown, corrupt systems, instead of making promises to feed into them?

Agreed. The same politicians who blast the union pensions are the ones that made the deal with the union in the first place. Don't blame the guys that negotiated in good faith and got a deal they can live with just because you didn't do your job and budget for the results.

Fire and Police retire young because it's a young man's gig. I would not want 55 year olds running around on patrol or into burning buildings.

Bloomberg has been a horrific manager - wasting money on tech projects that have soared above budget with little control or oversight and hiring a slew of consultants for "process improvement" with 0 results. For him to - after 8+ years of wasting the public funds to come after the guys and gals who keep this city running just because it fills the political vacuum is disgraceful. He won't win this one.

Excellent point by the FD union rep. Lets hire a 100k a year social media director, pay IBM a billion dollars to bring NYC to the 'cloud' and try pumping more money into the 911 system...all complements of expensive consultants

Unfortunately it's an irrelevant point that doesn't support his argument. That the government is wasting money in one place doesn't mean the pension system doesn't need reform. He's just trying to deflect attention.

Huh, something that I agree with from Bloomberg. The pensions for both city and state workers need to be reigned in.

And I agree with Michael Mulgrew. Plutocrats don't want to know or deal with the minions that serve them. We know this.

I also agree with Stephen Cassidy. Bloomberg has not done the best job of managing this city, it's costs or it's labor force. But, benefits for families of workers who died on the job should not be affected. This is just for personal benefits, not something conferred by death or disability.

And if the Union bosses want to cry foul: just remember jackasses, you're some of the few that get these benefits. I work in private sector and have to tuck away for myself. And don't forget that my taxes help pay for your retirement. So shut up and be happy that you're getting it at all, otherwise I reserve the right to bitch slap you for complaining about something I'm helping you get for free.

Unfortunately I can't allow this uninformed post to stand.

Unionized state employees do pay into the state ERS system at a rate of 5% of their salaries, which is in fact above what most people contribute to their 401(k) plans. There is an additional deferred compensation plan available also, which *IS* a 401(k) in all but name.

The system has been reformed numerous times, and with the current Tier V benefits (which came into effect last year) they will continue paying into this system at the same rate for the entire careers - which I believe qualifies as "tucking away for themselves".

The attitude of many private-sector workers is colored by the fantasy world where the state retirement fund is paid for by taxpayer dollars, which is factually incorrect. In fact, the state comptroller has successfully defended the retirement fund from being raided multiple times to shore up state expenditure - effectively the opposite of what you claim.

I do agree that overtime padding is an unfair practice and should be outlawed, but especially over the past two years many state agency departments have cut down on overtime to the point where it is
nonexistent.

In the cases of the MTA and NYPD it's quite difficult to hold their renumeration to account - whilst there are a great many bad eggs in NYPD, they do a valuable job and deserve to be compensated for it. More stringent regulations will do nothing to reform NYPD unless the closed culture of entitlement pervasive in police forces can be changed, as the very people whose job it is to enforce those regulations will fail to do so. This is because they are violating a strongly-reinforced unwritten social code.

As for service-oriented agencies such as Sanitation or the MTA - increased non-nuanced regulation of overtime will have a direct impact on services getting cut. The problem being that everyone holds such an extreme amount of frustration towards both these examples that understanding why they don't perform is almost worthy of a research grant due to all the FUD flying around.

For more information on the state retirement system you can take a look here:
http://www.osc.state.ny.us/ret...

Many NYPD officers take early retirement... I was wandering with a friend around the LES and happened upon a "retirement" party for a 42 year old cop. And guess what? He gets his pension for the rest of his life. So whether or not he padded it, say it was a $50,000 a year, state-tax exempt for the rest of his life. If he lives to be 92, that's 50 years of the state paying his pension. I highly doubt he contributed anywhere near that amount during the 20 years he worked for the force. I'm not disagreeing that taking away early pensions for public employees sucks, but when the pension system is unsustainable at the current tax income rate, it's either make these changes, or the pension system declares BANKTRUPTCY and then everybody loses their pension. That bad situation has already occurred in one small city in Alabama.

While yes, public sector jobs may be more difficult, especially those that deal directly with the public (NYPD, FDNY, teachers, etc), job security for people who have worked with these agencies after a while is CUSHY compared the the private sector. What we hear, whether it is true or not, is tenured job positions, guaranteed pay raises, and at least in the office buildings, easy work. Again, whether these assumptions are absolutely accurate or not does not deny that they are known and why sympathy, especially in crappy economies such as these, is hard to find.

I absolutely agree that NYPD pensions should be used to augment a full-time income from elsewhere - Just as an idea if you pull in a paycheck from elsewhere your pension should be reduced by a requisite amount topping out to 0 when you hit a certain income (pulling an arbitrary number out of the air... $60kpa?) until actual retirement age (for the sake of argument, 65)

And it's just one example of discouraging those who would go for an early retirement.

However, the early retirement age of NYPD staff is mostly down to the fact that the job is by and large very physical -guffaws and rotten vegetables thrown from the peanut gallery aside - these officers are expected to maintain a level of physical competency that tends become very difficult past middle age. As there are only so many desk jobs and senior positions that staff can be moved to before things start getting a little silly, it's unsurprising early retirement is more normal in that environment.

So, I disagree they should be prevented from retiring, but I do agree the typically long stretch of time they will be drawing from the pension fund needs a look at.

As for cushy positions... well, they exist everywhere and often are more the result of nepotism and social connections. The job security of a state worker is no more or less secure than the job security of a mid-level employee in any large corporation - it's just that as public agencies are on the whole more accountable and transparent to the public than private corporations, their management are more cautious with risky behavior that can lead to disastrous outcomes.

Sympathy is in short supply in perpetuity in this city, as NY is not exactly known for its compassion. However, in this case divide & conquer might not be the best way of going about recovery.

YES!

smoking fines should fix this.

Exactly, all those college kids and hobos surely represent a massive untapped revenue source for NYC!

And the outgoing Joel Klein gets will collect $34,000 annually for his eight years as chancellor --- EIGHT Years! On top of his potential MILLIONS working for NewsCorpse!

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_...

I agree. But when you look at the overall "big picture," $34,000 pales in comparison with the untold millions that taxpayers have to pay for city employers who are allowed to retire 10 or even 25 years earlier than the more customary age of 65.

And the NYPD is especially ridiculous. Cops retiring at age 40-45 is virtually unheard of in any place except NYC. To make matters worse, NYC also has the largest percentage of cops who retire on tax-free disability pensions. (And NYC is supposed to have the lowest, or one of the lowest, crime rates of all large US cities.) Clearly the present retirement system for "NY's finest" is rife with abuse

One notable example is NY State Senator Marty Golden of Brooklyn. Before he went into politics, State Senator Golden was a cop who retired with a disability, tax-free pension from the NYPD. Since Golden retired when he was only in his mid 30's, he has been collecting this pension for about 27 years. And, if you've ever seen NY Sen. Golden zipping around, you'd never guess that he was even disabled--much less that his injury was severe and permanent enough to qualify him for a special tax-free, disability pension.

Depends on when you're born and when you entered City service, but the current retirement age for workers is 57, I believe, if you entered after 2008 (correct, me if I'm wrong), whereas for Social Security it's now 67 if you were born after 1975 (again, please correct me if I'm wrong).

Still working for the City, you are limited in how much you can be paid, as there are pay caps due to agreements between the unions and the City. In the private sector you could make 80k in a job with no benefits, but for the City you could do the same work but for only 40k, but the benefits balance out the pay hit, though you could get raises until you hit your cap, say 55k. After that you just get your union contract raises, which are just cost of living adjustments per year, but at 2-3% they typically fail to adequately match reality.

However, I wasn't talking about all city workers. I was talking specifically about the NYPD where pension and especially disability abuse is particularly rife.

Below is from the NYPD's own website. The usual base salary for a regular cop after only 5.5 years is $76,488 and this does not include overtime, uniform allowance, holiday pay, etc. Cops are eligible to retire with 1/2 of their final salary after 22 years of service. One major area of contention is that many (most?) cops also artificially boost their final salaries by working excessive overtime right before retiring.

http://www.nypdrecruit.com/ben...

NYPD is probably the worst case next to the MTA (which strictly speaking is not a government agency)