Friday, September 17, 2010

Collins want to end pension padding


What if you called a press conference on serious reform and nobody showed up? County Executive Chris Collins and Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino did just that. They are trying to push for an end to the loophole allowing public service employees to pad their pensions through overtime the last three years before retirement.

Promoting the concept of sanity,these two think the pensions should be based on the base salary and not the artificially inflated numbers. Who ends up footing the bill? You and I do through the highest taxes in the country? But what's a few hundred million dollars between friends?

“Counties and municipalities are getting buried under escalating pension costs, and the situation is growing worse each year, yet the State Legislature is virtually ignoring the issue,” Astorino said. “The State Legislature must begin defusing this time bomb now to avert massive service cuts and tax increases in the next few years.”

It will be interesting to see what Andrew Cuomo says about this issue. He relies heavily on the unions for support.I predict he will offer up some fluff statements about the need for reform without actually carrying it out. He needs to keep things exactly the way they are in New York to keep his family's pyramid scheme going. I know Carl Paladino would never run one of his businesses like New York state is run. This "pension padding" loophole reminds me of another famous loophole in American history...


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