August 18, 2008
State Police negotiate 14%, four-year raise
Coming two days in advance of an "emergency" legislative session that he called to deal with a looming $6.4 budget shortfall, the timing of Governor David Paterson's tentative contract deal with the State Police Benevolent Association (PBA) is an eyebrow-raiser, to say the least.
From the governor's press release on Sunday afternoon (here):
The four-year contract term is from 2007 to 2011, and includes standard, across-the-board salary increase of 3 percent in the first three years, and 4 percent in the final year. The payment increase percentages in the contract mirror similar agreements New York State has reached with other bargaining units. This agreement also addresses certain benefits, including a program that allows troopers who are injured in the line of duty to continue to serve New York State in a light-duty capacity.
The state PBA has been without a contract since March 2007. The agreement includes two contracts: one covers troopers; the other covers officers and uniformed supervisors with ranks of sergeant, lieutenant, captain and major.
The New York Sun reports the New York State Troopers PBA Political Action Committee made a $25,000 contribution to Governor David Paterson's campaign committee July 8. It quotes a Paterson spokesman saying there was no connection between the contribution and contract.
The agreement sticks to the relatively generous salary pattern -- roughly 14 percent in base pay hikes over four years--first established in former Governor Eliot Spitzer's 2007 contract with the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), and continued in Spitzer's subsequent deals with District Council 37, United University Professions (UUP) and the Public Employees Federation (PEF).
Although Paterson has cited "increasingly harsh economic times" and pledged to save money by reducing the state payroll through attrition, members of state employee unions have not only been spared a call for sacrifice -- they will be receiving what amount to business-as-usual pay increases.
The Governor's Office of Employee Relations does not post current State Police salaries on its website as it does with other employee unions.
According to the Sun story, the base salary for State Police trainees is $50,374 and the average salary of a trooper is $74,700, not including overtime and other payments.
According to the Empire Center's Taylor Made report, state police have been major beneficiaries of binding arbitration since it was extended to their unions a decade ago. Including overtime, seniority increments and other differentials, the average salary of state police--including investigators not covered by the PBA contract--doubled to $95,103 during the 10 years ending in fiscal year 2006-07, our report notes.
While the issue was not cited in the governor's news release, fear of rolling the dice with another arbitration may be among the reasons the Paterson administration made a quick pattern deal with the PBA despite the state's budget troubles.
The PBA's 3,600 members do not include some 1,300 investigators represented by New York State Police Investigators Association. They have yet to agree to a new contract.
How much will the contract add to the state budget? The governor's press release Sunday doesn't say. That follows another (regrettable) pattern: government officials in New York routinely withhold even basic financial details of tentative labor settlements.
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