Discussion thread for LI Civil Service pensions and salaries (Buffalo: rent, bill)
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Are their salries too high?? Yes. The problem i have is they have a contract, and the county is just going to ignore it. That IS illegal. Should they renegotiate? Absolutely! But the county has no right to just freeze their pay.
Obviously you are unfamiliar with bankruptcies. A contract isn't worth the paper it's written on anymore - sort of like the U.S. Constitution.
I know what NIFA's charter says. And NIFA is the government. So the question of when a government has the right -- not the authority -- to break legally binding contracts with its employees still stands.
The whole issue is pure politics. Nassau County has the ability to balance its budget with modest tax increases. What it lacks is political will. And because it lacks political will, legally binding contracts are going to be unilaterally disregarded. That sets a dangerous precedent on many levels.
And you're misunderstanding the comment about teachers. The individual school districts didn't -- and couldn't -- decide to unilaterally freeze teacher salaries because they didn't want to raise taxes. They were forced to negotiate those wage freezes and other concessions because the teachers have legally binding contracts. The same thing Nassau County unions did in the recent past. Yet despite those concessions, Nassau unions -- who negotiated in good faith at the request of the county -- are now having their legally binding contracts disregarded.
They been modestly raising taxes in Nassau County for years. Modestly raise a tax here, modestly raise a tax there. And so modest Nassau County has some of the modest taxes in the United States.
Despite your brilliant analysis that the law suit was a given because "Last time I checked, that's what a union is supposed to do; look out for it's members interests"... the good PR derived from 1 years worth of wage freezes could be more in the members' interests than 3% one time. I'm actually happy the PBA is fighting the wage freeze - now even more people can see how greedy the NCPD is and how little they care about the public when the trough starts to dry up.
Your sarcasm notwithstanding, the simple fact is that the "Good PR" as you put it has no intrinsic value whatsoever. This is neither the first time, nor will it be the least time that there won't be a wage increase involving the NCPD. For the most part, it simply isn't advertised. Contract negotiations are just that, negotiations...or do you *really* think a politician's word has any "intrinsic value" either? The easiest way to get anything is to ask, not issue fiats. Simply put, if the county, or any bargaining agency want to renegotiate, it has to start by asking.
You think Suffolk County is good at using the law of supply and demand when it comes to hiring police officers? LOL. Their rates of pay are even more lavish than Nassau's is ... and even with all those candidates available, pay keeps going UP, UP, UP ... the exact opposite of what the "supply and demand" formula in the real world would be with 26,000 applicants for 140 positions.
No, that's not what I claimed. I stated that our neighbor (Suffolk County) has a large number of applicants for their few positions. (Imagining that our situation in Nassau County is the same), I then asked why couldn't we apply the law of supply and demand in negotiating a fairer pay for our officers here - which would have to be lower than what it currently is.
No, that's not what I claimed. I stated that our neighbor (Suffolk County) has a large number of applicants for their few positions. (Imagining that our situation in Nassau County is the same), I then asked why couldn't we apply the law of supply and demand in negotiating a fairer pay for our officers here - which would have to be lower than what it currently is.
Why would Nassau if Suffolk doesn't? Never mind the huge number of applicants ... I could just hear the Nassau police union, etc., screaming their heads off if the County attempted to base raises, benefits and pensions on the overly large group of willing labor out there for the jobs.
The point I am making is that both Nassau and Suffolk completely stick their heads in the sand when it comes to the question of, "Are we overcompensating the police? Why do we get such a huge number of applicants?" They won't say that. They will play deaf, dumb, and blind and continue to break records each year with the raises, pensions and cushy "employee and family doesn't share a cent of the cost" benefits.
[The whole issue is pure politics. Nassau County has the ability to balance its budget with modest tax increases. What it lacks is political will. And because it lacks political will, legally binding contracts are going to be unilaterally disregarded. That sets a dangerous precedent on many levels.
I can't believe people still think we can solve our problems with more tax increases. Police salaries are outrageous. And their benefits are amazing. Work for 20 years, get paid for 60, plus health insurance. What would happen if their salaries were cut by 25%? They would still be well compensated.
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