An article in the Journal News today [READ: Lower Hudson Valley has 25 of top 100 municipal pensions in state] indicated that 25 Westchester employees are among the top retirees who earned the highest pensions in the State of New York. The article reported that the NY State Attorney General’s office is looking into pension padding - a practice that uses overtime to boost salaries so public employees can receive higher pensions.
A suggestion that could eliminate this kind of abuse. Employee pensions should be calculated on the BASE salary, without including overtime. This would discourage abuses and might discourage employees who are ready for retirement from seeking additional unnecessary overtime. If less senior employees in all governments are used for overtime it would also be much less expensive for the local governments.
Statewide, 1,378 municipal retirees have pension benefits of more than $100,000 a year according to an analysis by the Empire Center for NYS Policy.
Eliminating overtime abuses would reduce the cost of government without impacting vital services.
Paul Feiner is the Greenburgh Town Supervisor.
