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Stop the hysteria. The wages are irrelevant. What is relevant is that the police unions have made concessions for several years running through re-negotiating their contracts at the request of the county. Now with a change of administration NIFA steps in and effectively nullifies the contracts, despite the fact that good-faith negotiations were made by both parties. (You don't see any of the teacher's unions having wage freezes imposed on them without the benefit of negotiation.) The political rhetoric has to separated from the legal issue at hand: when does government have the right to unilaterally break contracts with its employees?
By the way, research a bit and discover just how many Sheriff's deputies there are in Nassau County (Corrections Officers aren't included). It's not like Suffolk where there's an existing force of uniformed patrol personnel. The Sheriff jobs in Nassau and Suffolk Counties are very different and the Nassau Sheriffs Department is not capable of assuming the duties of the Nassau Police Department.
A NY State fiscal control board has already frozen wages on all public employees in Erie County (City of Buffalo) several years ago including the teachers. Their structure was slighly different and more resembled a city than a county.
Yes the NCPD has given back in the past but there might still be room for improvement to say the least. The PBA raised the issue that NC might have go pay the raises back retroactively. I actually agree with the PBA law suit with respect to shared pain, all positions including the legislature and particularly the political appointees should be frozen.
Regarding teachers: they would be in the exact same boat as the County employees if they were under Nassau County. Their only saving grace is that the school districts are all separate little government entities of their own. If not and the ones located in Nassau were a part of Nassau County, NIFA would be doing the same thing to them.
Regarding "when does a government have the right to break contracts with its employees" -- I would say you need to read exactly what NIFA's charter says for the where, when, how and why.
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.
really now; what did you think the SOA, DAI & PBA were going to do? Last time I checked, that's what a union is supposed to do; look out for it's members interests...The least three times the county came & asked, all three answered.
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.
The whole issue is pure politics. Nassau County has the ability to balance its budget with modest tax increases.
So in a county where taxes are already the highest in the nation, you feel we should just raise them more so the already overpaid NCPD can get it's raise?
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.
I'm pretty sure with the high-powered, $1200/hr, white-shoe lawyers over at NIFA that they are not overstepping their rights or authority.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pdcnret
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'm frightened.. ... "lacks political will" = codeword for "finally after 20 yrs the CE & the legislature refuse to throw the taxpayer under the bus."
Oh the poor, poor unions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ABACAB
So in a county where taxes are already the highest in the nation, you feel we should just raise them more so the already overpaid NCPD can get it's raise?
Absolutely. You can't cut a contract, but you can get the results on the renegotiations.
Except the PBA doesn't have to negotiate, and they can go to arbitration where they will be compared to the SCPD and get a pay raise - welcome to the PBA racket on LI of the last 20 years. This NIFA pay freeze is the BEST thing that can happen for the tax payers. Welcome it, embrace it and trumpet it because this is the only way to get the NCPD compensation back to reality.
Except the PBA doesn't have to negotiate, and they can go to arbitration where they will be compared to the SCPD and get a pay raise - welcome to the PBA racket on LI of the last 20 years. This NIFA pay freeze is the BEST thing that can happen for the tax payers. Welcome it, embrace it and trumpet it because this is the only way to get the NCPD compensation back to reality.
Maybe they should compare them to the NYPD since Nassau county is rapidly becoming "Queens East"
Wall Street steals 40% of the economy we give them tax breaks. Then we go after teachers, police and firemen
Yes, because in your world everybody either works for wall street or is a civil servant. So wall streeters make a ton of money, cops and teachers get bigger raises while the money is flowing, and it's everybody else who is left holding the bag. Well Wall St took it's lumps (don't quote some very senior executive making a million dollar bonus, it's not comparable) and now the teachers and police, whose compensation is out of proportion with the non-wall st compensation, need to take theirs.
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