July 11, 2008
I quit (maybe)
Dear Boss:
Although I enjoy writing this blog, I fantasize about becoming a Nassau County employee. After only five years on the county payroll, I'd get health benefits for life. Can you match that?
Lise
P.S. I must act quickly because Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman wants to change the policy so new employees would need to work 10 years to get lifetime benefits. Still a great deal, especially if I live another 40-plus years.
Apparently, this is what goes for fiscal reform in Nassau County. According to the comptroller:
If this vesting requirement had been in effect since 1998, the savings in health insurance costs in 2008 could have been as high as $3.4 million and $123 million over the lifetime of the retirees.
In 2003, Civil Service Employees Association agreed that future county hires must work 10 years to get lifetime benefits. However, that does not apply to other Nassau County workers. As Newsday reports:
Currently, a person could work as little as one year with Nassau if she or he has at least four years with another New York government and be eligible for county retirement health benefits.
Under Weitzman's plan (which must be approved by the county Legislature--and labor unions) to be eligible for retiree health benefits, a person must be at least 50 and have worked 10 years for a public employer in New York (including at least five years for Nassau County).
In 2007, health benefits for employees, retirees and their family members cost $227 million. The county's promises to provide health benefits for current and future retirees will cost an estimated $3.4 billion.
Future taxpayers will shoulder that unfunded liability. Suddenly, working for Nassau County--even with the lure of lifetime health insurance--loses its luster when I weigh the price of being a Nassau County taxpayer.
So, Boss, I'm not quitting. Besides this blog is too much fun.
(Update: Newsday editorial, here.)
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