It's obvious most of the posters don't even know how pensions are funded or paid out. NYPD and FDNY pay into their pensions from day one. When we are eligible to retire, it is a half-pay pension, that is fixed. Guess what happens to the tax receipts the city takes in over the next 30 years? They go up. What is the 'burden' of that retirees pension after 30 years? Diminished by inflation. Much less. These pensions have been around for seventy-five years, and the system is healthy. Unfortunately, willful ignorance or outright lying takes place, to say they are 'underfunded.' They take a snapshot of the funds, say the years that they decline, and say "see, they're going to keep declining, we're running out of money!" Same people were telling you housing prices were going to keep going up and up, ignoring the ups and downs of the market. They took that nice little snapshot that showed that upward trend and said, see, housing only goes up.
The pensions are based on actuarial data, dry stuff, but stuff that has worked for a couple of hundred years for the insurance industry and pension funds. Can't speak for other unions, but the NYPD and FDNY pension systems are funded, solid, and healthy.
Now, for all the posters out there who 'hate the cops' and all the other nonsense comments, can't help you there. I'm a fireman, hate me if you want. But I'll tell you this, the pension, and the security I could provide my family if something happens to me, let's me take a little more risk to help you. If you want me to take fewer risks to help you, that's your right. You are paying my salary. Right now if you live in NYC, you have the best FD in the world, that's not bs. If you are in harms way, we are going to get you out of it. If you want to take the attitude of "the hell with them, we pay their salaries, we can do whatever we want to them" then you're not going to get the types of personalities that do this job the way we currently do this job. Personally, the idea that I can live in NYC and know, for a fact, that there is a force of 10,000 firefighters who will break down doors, walls, etc. to help you is a comforting thought.
It's a pact. I swear I will do everything in my power to get you out of harms way. You pay me to do it. The pensions are a very small part of the budget of NYC, no matter what Bloomberg says. He is twisting the truth.
By the way, the city made it through the Depression, and several extremely hard times, the 70s, while keeping pensions. Now all of a sudden we can't. Everyone knows it's BS. Believe it if you want. 50 years from now, there will still be pensions. They work.

Well said.

Isn't the whole idea of pensions a benefit because you get paid less than a private sector job where they don't offer you any kind of retirement? Perhaps if wall st should stop jacking up all kinds of fees on everything and overpaying a lot of their employees and then we'll talk about pension reform.

I'm one of those people you hate. In my career I was shot once, was present at both WTC attacks and happily, saved quite a few lives. A great many of those lives were on the morning of September 11 where my shoulder was dislocated by a falling body. I was further injured in the collapse but got just enough medical attention to get back to the rescue and recovery operation and saw and did things there no man should ever have to.

I was 33 then. I had my first heart attack 6 months to the day after the attack. Please know that I always kept after myself and don't smoke and try to eat as well as I could given my salary and work conditions. Years later, my body is giving up on me, whether it's from the actual physical abuse my body took for years or the PTSD that has haunted me. I can't walk more than a block without losing my breath, I am constantly sore, I haven't slept a decent night's sleep in years and I'm just tired of what my 5 year old girl calls "the crazies."

I'm not a hero. I chased after your bogeymen and ran into flaming buildings because I couldn't imagine not doing it but part of what made that job easier was the understanding that if something happened to me, my family would be looked after. Now all of the sudden you've decided that it's too expensive for you and that my name should be published and held up for derision? Go screw. You can have your money, I want my youth back. I want to feel like a human being again. I want to see my daughter grow up, but I know that won't happen. I want to grow old with the love of my life because these are all things that we're entitled to, aren't we? We made a deal with each other. I held up mine. Now you hold up yours.

You are entitled to your pension, it should not be reduced.
You are entitled to your privacy, your full name should not be published.
You are entitled to your safety, your full name should not identified as a police officer.

i would like to know just how much money has been spent on medicaid scams. welfare rigging and oh yes. the free heat rent power and gas that crime ridden public housing has cost the city in the past year and compare it to the cost of NYPD and FDNY pensions. making 100k in NYC is nothing anymore and most cops and fireman can average about 85 at top pay. why dont we go after people who abuse a system and contribute nothing rather than those who are simply doing there jobs and collecting. retiring at 45 and getting half your salary for 30 more years is nothing compared to generations of abuse

Are they going to also print the lists of names of people receiving other money from the government, such as food stamps, medicaid, and welfare?

Actually --- I'd first list all the politicians who are currently doing jail time

see Vinnie Liebel --
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/ar...

(fed if you must know) and getting a nice pension check from the public. And - of course the crime was related to his public service.

Sounds like the empire state.. should re-order its priorities...

its sad the the line some of you people are starting with is "im no cop lover" or "no one hates cops more than me" what would you do if there were no cops? u trust all these criminals to run free and kill and steal whoever and whatever they want? what do u propose the city do to combat this,im sick of all you liberal losers that think ever cop is corrupt, but when you need one then what happens, dont call the cops and waste their time, call a crack head that wants to help.

Chris makes a point. While suspicion of authority is an American imperative, most cops do their jobs well and have a basic sense of decency. Unfortunately it is the kind of job that draws in easily corrupted people, who relish power over justice. And a few dumb guys. But having spent a good deal of time recently in the PRC, I can say that police in America are surprisingly adept at getting off their asses and helping people. I look forward to my next moving violation. I mean that.

If you want the pension take the test!!! Stop bitching and do something for yourself. Stop looking to other who have made different career choice then your own. A few years ago the stock brokers and the rest of the city could careless about cops and firemen pay. If they choice a Career that has a secure pay and pension that was there choice. They never make a holiday bonus of thousands like wall street does. So if you hate you job want a pension take the next test!!!

If you want the pension take the test!!! Stop bitching and do something for yourself. Stop looking to other who have made different career choice then your own. A few years ago the stock brokers and the rest of the city could careless about cops and firemen pay. If they choice a Career that has a secure pay and pension that was there choice. They never make a holiday bonus of thousands like wall street does. So if you hate you job want a pension take the next test!!!

Public lists of the identities of law enforcement officers who have an extra reason for people to hate them? Can't imagine what could go wrong there...oh, yeah. Nevermind.

Noooooo, nothing to worry about...

To the People who want to harass them: Remember Many of them KEEP THEIR GUNS.

This is a fake bloomberg-created non-issue. And it's not just a NYPD issue. FDNY receives similar contracts.

A contract is a contract. Villianizing former public employees for receiving money they are contractually obligated to receive is stupid and pointless. No one is 'gaming the system' other than maybe the police and fire administration who try to demote whoever they can before retirement so they get less pension.

It wasn't all that long ago that being a city cop was a job only for the truly insane - a job very few wanted to take. And if someone is crazy enough to spend the best years of their life running into burning buildings to save YOUR lives, and their contract said they'd get a pension, then fuck yes, give them the fucking pension and stop crying about.

you get paid for time you serve on the job, do you do it to help people or to be able to sit on your ass after you're 55? civil service should be about just that, not the paycheck you keep receiving.

Are you kidding? What kind of hippy nonsense are you talking about? Cops, Firefighters, Sanitation & Teachers should all be unpaid volunteer positions?

Everyone gets some kind of retirement income even people who ride a "2008 Fuji Track Pro" to work like you. Assuming your job is on the books.

So, are you advocating for 60 year old cops walking the beat?

For the most part this and fighting fires is a physical job. Young retirement makes sense to me.

Love how all the traders and wall street guys were arguing for the sanctity of a contract when bonus time came around. But G. forbid a civil servant with a pension negotiated in good faith claims what is owed to him. (Not to mention that the biggest source of fees for asset management firms are pension funds - but we don't need to go there now...)

If you are against pensions, the beef is with the city officials who negotiated the contracts. Not the civil servants who did their job and now deserve to retire in peace.

I said this earlier in the post, but the problem with early retirement is that even if someone works a hard-on-the-body job, they may live a long, healthy life, and getting 40 years of pay-out when they only contributed to the pension for 20 years doesn't make fiscal sense. I'm all for allowing a fireman or police officer to retire after 20 years of work. I just think allowing them to only pull from it after age 65 makes much more sense. If they reach 20 years at age 45 and don't want to be a civil servant anymore, then he/she can retire from the police force and do something different until she/he can pull out their retirement at 65.

Taracorinne, you don't know how pensions work. It isn't a 401(k), employees don't "contribute to the pension." GalBklyn knows what she's talking about.