Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy
The office of Steve Levy issued this release today:
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy today is calling on members of the New York State Legislature to impose a 2% cap on increases in union contracts achieved through mandatory arbitration awards. If such a cap were instituted statewide, the savings to Suffolk taxpayers could be in the range of $7-$10 million per year for police alone, considering recent 3.5% increases achieved by police unions through mandatory arbitration.
Levy cited a January 30 Newsday story noting that nearly half of Nassau County’s 2,400-member police force collected more than $150,000 last year largely due to high overtime costs and retirement packages. In Suffolk last year, 1,356 officers on a force of 2,576 collected more than $150,000, including a two-year retroactive contract payment and severance pay for officers who retired.
Mandatory arbitration is a process by which some law enforcement unions obtain an independent arbitrator to give a final and binding decision where an impasse on negotiation exists. The county executive has long pushed for an end to mandatory arbitration, saying that doing so would create incentive for serious negotiation and potential givebacks to the management side that would benefit taxpayers.
“The problem with mandatory arbitration is that the arbitrators have tended to side largely with the unions,” said Levy. “Usually, arbitrators look to our neighboring county as a barometer for the award they give rather than the impact such an award would have on taxpayers. For example, an arbitrator will see a neighboring municipality’s increase and thereafter one-up it. This leapfrog approach cycles back and forth, leading to salaries and benefits that are mind boggling to an average, private worker.”
Levy’s plan is based on a program that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie implemented as a toolkit to balance out that state’s 2 percent property tax cap. The New York State senate will vote this week on a property tax cap, and Levy is pushing for a similar toolkit to be installed for New York.
for the record i am a public sector emergency service employee for a neighboring municipality and live on long island. i am severely underpaid for risking my life daily for this major municipality compared to SCPD. But you all have it backwards SCPD (and NCPD) are the police forces that are not overpaid the other municipalities are underpaid. If it was not for the contracts of SCPD and NCPD my salary and benefits be even less. More power to you fine officers!! All I did was get up on one saturday morning and take a test and then train for months to pass a grueling pyhsical. the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence people. The pension and compensation is based on what is required to be an emergency service worker. Work holidays, nights, weekends, possibility of death, injury, disability. No job can compare to an emergency service job. each job no matter private or public cant be compared to any other job than the same job. There is no private sector job that comes close to comparison to police officer, emergency service worker or teacher. Having done both private sector and public sector jobs – each sector has distinct advantages the other doesn’t. In the bad times like now the private sector only sees the perceived perks of the public sector job. the private sector did not see these so called perks in the good economy because these perks paled in comparison to private sector perks. the private sector is now in shambles and the articles like this one stoke the fire of resentment towards people in jobs the resenting people had no interest in applying for 10 or 15 years ago!!.
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