September 30, 2008
Mixed messages for older police officers
Governor David Paterson has taken two approaches to the question of how long police officers should be allowed to work, approving a local option, but vetoing a statewide mandate.
Municipalities should have the option to raise the retirement age for their police and firefighters to 65, Paterson said last week in signing a bill that alters a pension law.
But he rejected a second bill that would have lifted the mandatory retirement age for all police officers--including the State Police--to 65. The retirement age for State Police was raised to 60 from 57 in 2007.
In his veto message Friday, Paterson said he was "sympathetic to targeted efforts to allow qualified older workers to stay on the job longer," but he called the bill "significantly flawed".
It imposes a cookie cutter approach on a host of State and local police forces, from those employed by the New York City Police Department to the Metropolitan Transit Authority to the [state] Department of Environmental Conservation. In short the bill has implications for tens of different and uniquely situated employers, each of which would be affected in a different manner. He also expressed support for a position taken by the Conference of Mayors, who are concerned with the impact of the General Municipal Law.
That provision allows officers for municipalities who are injured in the line of duty to receive full salary while on leave or, under certain circumstances, performing "light tasks". This bill would allow these officers--even if they are performing no work at all-to have their active tenure extended at full salary. In his veto message, Paterson notes he signed the bill that would make a change in the "384-d" retirement plan, allowing police and firefighters to remain in the retirement plan until they are 65 rather than 62. Most police, outside New York City, participate in that pension plan. A smaller number are in a plan that extends the age 70.
The bill, he says, "would leave in place any mandatory retirement age that a locality may have under a different statute, thus preserving local autonomy and prerogatives."
As with the other bill, the Conference of Mayors argues the measure would extend time a disabled officer could remain on the payroll at full salary, a reason Governor Spitzer vetoed a similar measure in 2007. Paterson said he was satisfied with a new provision that older cops and firefighters "must be capable of performing the duties of their position".
For previous NY Public Payroll Watch items on the bills, see here and here.
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