BUFFALO, N.Y. - A total of 119 bills under consideration by state lawmakers would enhance benefits for public workers at a cost of at least $349 million to taxpayers, according to a non-profit watchdog group that criticized the potential spending in a report earlier this month.
The Citizens Budget Commission's "2018 Budget Sweetner Scorecard" analyzed legislation in a number of different sectors, including education, criminal justice and public safety.
David Friedfel, the group's director of state studies, said pension spending itself is not inherently wrong. However, the Citizens Budget Commission takes issue with legislative proposals that erase prior collective bargaining agreements and tack on costs to taxpayers.
"Many times, an enhanced benefit for one small group may not cost very much and may not seem like a big deal," Friedfel said, "but once it's given to one group, suddenly all other groups in the state feel they should be entitlted to it, too."
The Citizens Budget Commission's report identified $349 million in potential spending, but it calculated that number using available estimates from lawmakers. About two-thirds of the 119 proposed bills could not -- or did not -- give estimates of costs to the public.
Lawmakers, of course, would defend the need for legislation that protects public employees. Republicans and Democrats in both legislative chambers proposed some of the bills under scrutiny by CBC, including several elected lawmakers in Western New York. Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D-Buffalo) proposed one bill to allow Transit Police officers who get laid off to transfer to another municipal department. Sen. Patrick Gallivan (R-Elma), meanwhile, proposed a bill that would raise salary limits for retired police officers, in order to boost the presence of school resource officers following the Parkland shooting.
In an interview with the New York Post, Assemblyman Peter Abbate (D-Brooklyn) said the benefits are essential.
"These are the people who keep the state running. We have to take care of them," he told the newspaper.
The Citizens Budget Commission, however, sees a need for reform.
"Almost all these benefits would have an added cost for taxpayers," Friedfel said. "Some, relatively minimal, others, could be tens of millions of dollars in increased costs every year going forward."
