ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Local governments say a proposal to study health
benefits for retirees is really a "Trojan horse" that will protect forever free
or nearly free lifetime health insurance for retired government workers.
The bill would for at least a year bar local governments and the state from
finding cheaper ways to provide health insurance for their retirees until a task
force reports its findings.
New York State Association of Counties Executive Director Stephen Acquario
said Friday that the bill would prohibit governments from making cuts in local
and state public spending, which has led to some of the highest taxes in the
nation.
The bill (A-9393-A) could be acted on as early as next week and has strong
majority sponsors in the Senate and Assembly. It was revised in the Assembly's
government employees committee where any action to reduce the health benefit for
retirees would be suspended until a task force reports its recommendations. The
12-member task force includes state government officials including at least
three recommended by the AFL-CIO, but none from local governments, according to
the bill.
"You're talking about retiree health care here," said AFL-CIO President
Denis Hughes, who supports the measure. "We owe it to them that they don't spend
the end of their lives in misery."
The concern comes as Gov. David Paterson pushes to reduce local government
spending and to cut taxes that he said are driving young New Yorkers to other
states for jobs and lower costs of living.
"I think it's everybody's concern that in this panic -- in this weakened
economy -- to deal with the cost of government that we do it well and do it
right and we don't scapegoat the most vulnerable people, your retirees," Hughes
said. "That's my only interest."
He said he sees no problem excluding local government officials from the
expert panel because labor leaders weren't included in panels created to cut
local government spending.
"It's a classic legislative Trojan horse concealing a financial time bomb
for taxpayers," said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for New York State
Policy, part of the fiscally conservative Manhattan Institute. "How about
protecting taxpayers? We need a detailed and objective study of options -- not a
stacked task force that will deliver a foregone conclusion."
Governors George Pataki and Eliot Spitzer vetoed similar measures five times
saying it would limit efforts to reduce costs. There was no immediate comment
from Paterson Friday.
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