Santabarbara Joins Cuomo, DiNapoli Fight: Politician Retirement Benefits Must Be Dropped
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT INFO: Angelo Santabarbara (51 424-5248
Schenectady County, NY - Republican Schenectady County Legislator Angelo Santabarbara is joining the fight started by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to help drastically reduce government cost. Last year, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced he was looking for allies in his fight to reduce the number of governments in the state, which Cuomo pegged at 10,521. “Maybe I’m just one small voice but I am joining his fight!”, said Santabarbara. “As Mr. Cuomo indicated, steps such as this haven’t been taken before because ‘there is a vested political bureaucracy’ that resists all such changes. However, we can no longer look the other way. Politicians have played a major role in the economic and fiscal crises now engulfing the state and they need to start making some dramatic changes in the way they govern.”, explained Santabarbara. Even more specifically, Comptroller DiNapoli is probing the retirement benefits of elected officials. In this regard, Legislator Santabarbara is specifically proposing that many politicians serving in New York State, with some exceptions, should no longer accrue retirement benefits, period! According to the NYS Retirement System Annual Report, Annual Benefit Payments within the State of New York totaled $5,243,799,033 for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008. In stark contrast, the combined Annual Benefit Payments for Arizona, California, Florida, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia combined was only $1,074,621,000!
“The New York State government is so bloated we are going to explode!”, exclaimed Legislator Santabarbara. “We have got to start making serious changes to the way New York State does business at every level…and the politicians should be the first to start making those changes.”
As an example, there are 63 counties in the State of New York. If each county legislature had 10 members (Schenectady has 15) there are 630 members potentially accruing retirement benefits each and every year. The average benefit for someone with 5-9 years of service is 11% of final average salary. Therefore, if the average legislator salary is $15,000/year, when all 630 legislators reach retirement age, the payout will be over $1 million a year. If this benefit is extrapolated out to the new legislators added every year, and to all other levels of local government (town boards, etc), the payouts will be astronomical and will increase exponentially! Worse yet, politicians are voting for their own benefits and are often abusing the system according to recent statements of DiNapoli and Santabarbara. Many politicians are giving themselves credit as full time employees in the state pension system which Santabarbara believes is highly questionable for many politicians. “I spend a lot of time, I think more than most, on my political job, but to say I am working another full-time job as a county legislator would be playing fast and loose with the truth. Rather then waste everyone’s time and money trying to determine where the truth lies with these politicians, I propose a straight forward denial of any retirement benefits for politicians whatsoever.”, explained Santabarbara.
“Service as a representative of the people should be just that, public service. It should not be a way to line the pockets of elected officials”, explained Santabarbara. Santabarbara was also referring to the numerous other benefits many political officials are receiving. “Many politicians are even voting themselves family health benefits for life! We simply cannot afford these outrageous benefits…especially for politicians.”
Santabarbara is calling for the Schenectady County Legislature to lead the way in reforming New York government. He will be asking the legislature to remove themselves from this system and to be a united and forceful voice to push and lobby the state government, including Governor Patterson, to address this issue at a statewide level.
“I want our Attorney General and Comptroller to hear the voice of Schenectady County loud and clear that we are on your side in this fight for the taxpayers and fiscal stability of our state.”, said Santabarbara.
The issue appearing on the Town of Rotterdam meeting agenda appears to be similar to that occurring in our county government whereby our PART-TIME elected officials are attempting to mischaracterize their positions as full-time so that they can receive greater retirement benefits than those earned. Granted, there may be some who can genuinely attest to working full-time hours. However, many of our elected representatives have full-time jobs (many w/ NY State) and cannot honestly assert that they are working a full-time schedule in their part-time elected positions.
Question that I have is this, is Mr. Santabarbara proposing that this legislation is applied/enacted to both the Republican-controlled Town of Rotterdam as well as in the Democratic-controlled county government?
Any legislation must have severe penalties for those who fraudulently report their hours worked.
The issue appearing on the Town of Rotterdam meeting agenda appears to be similar to that occurring in our county government whereby our PART-TIME elected officials are attempting to mischaracterize their positions as full-time so that they can receive greater retirement benefits than those earned. Granted, there may be some who can genuinely attest to working full-time hours. However, many of our elected representatives have full-time jobs (many w/ NY State) and cannot honestly assert that they are working a full-time schedule in their part-time elected positions.
Question that I have is this, is Mr. Santabarbara proposing that this legislation is applied/enacted to both the Republican-controlled Town of Rotterdam as well as in the Democratic-controlled county government?
Any legislation must have severe penalties for those who fraudulently report their hours worked.
Angelo is aware of this proposal in Rotterdam and is just as opposed to the measure there as he is in the county. He cannot attend the town meeting Wednesday night, as his job has him out of town this week. He will be issuing a statement about it. So to answer your question, L&J: Yes, Angelo will oppose the measure with the Republican town board just as vehemently as he has opposed the same measure in the county.
Quoted from gadfly: He will be issuing a statement about it. So to answer your question, L&J: Yes, Angelo will oppose the measure with the Republican town board just as vehemently as he has opposed the same measure in the county.
Glad to hear gadfly. We will be watching and awaiting his statement.
This is good but I have to ask you one huge question indeed : Are you some - how an official in Ang's campaign now for this year or what since I am a very big supporter of what he does and always voted for him and campaigned wih the people I know to support him and indeed he is a good example of what the repubs need to be like but instead act bad. Now I see Miss Gadflies comments and I know you are Miss Rhinestone and I am a little more bothered to see you state that he is this or he is that and he thinks this or he thinks that. I dont know what games you are playing over here but if you dont speak for Angelo then dont try to speak for Ang OK?
This is good but I have to ask you one huge question indeed : Are you some - how an official in Ang's campaign now for this year or what since I am a very big supporter of what he does and always voted for him and campaigned wih the people I know to support him and indeed he is a good example of what the repubs need to be like but instead act bad. Now I see Miss Gadflies comments and I know you are Miss Rhinestone and I am a little more bothered to see you state that he is this or he is that and he thinks this or he thinks that. I dont know what games you are playing over here but if you dont speak for Angelo then dont try to speak for Ang OK?
I have worked with Angelo since the day he decided to run for office. Everyone knows who I am, I could not care less what you think and I don't know why anyone responds to your purposely ridiculous posts... I only know that this will be my only response to your games, Brian Sal.
Angelo is aware of this proposal in Rotterdam and is just as opposed to the measure there as he is in the county. He cannot attend the town meeting Wednesday night, as his job has him out of town this week. He will be issuing a statement about it. So to answer your question, L&J: Yes, Angelo will oppose the measure with the Republican town board just as vehemently as he has opposed the same measure in the county.
Gadfly:
You are an excellent spokesperson for Santabarbara. Thank you for keeping us all informed. He really shows his worth by surrounding himself with people of your character!
You can't fault anyone for speaking and supporting what or who they believe is right. And when it comes to 'character', I don't think the same rules apply to a private citizen as with someone in the public arena. And I believe that gadfly is a private citizen.
All private citizens have opinions, beliefs and concerns and they are 'theirs'. I don't think it would be in anyone's best interest to criticize a private citizen's opinions or who or what they support. That would only prevent other private citizens from voicing their opinions for fear of intimidation or repercussions. Not a good thing in a free society.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
and the bullshit continues ... god election season is great, isn't it?
Ah Yup....and it has gotten progressively worse! pathetic!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
You are an excellent spokesperson for Santabarbara. Thank you for keeping us all informed. He really shows his worth by surrounding himself with people of your character!
You are an idiot papaPascarella...you can't even wish for our character or our loyalty to our residents' best interests, as it would be in severe conflict with your designation as Hamilton/Krat puppet. You never did tell us...how's life on the strings Randy??????
Now that papa and Sal are out of the way, for those of you who are rational and interested, Angelo has researched this thoroughly, since none of his colleagues in the County Legislature nor any members of the Rotterdam Town Board bothered, which you will see is obvious. I will explain it in greater detail in another post on this thread. Be back in a little while...
The resolution on the agenda for Wednesday's town meeting is a directive from the NYS Comptroller's office. All municipalities have to pass the resolution for the purpose of mandating that elected officials begin logging time spent on duties related to their positions. The reason for this is that all elected officials automatically enter the NYS Retirement system but unlike government employees, there is no record of days/hours worked, leaving retirement benefits calculations to guesswork. Position duties can include everything from time spent on the phone discussing municipal business to attending community events, any time of day or night, weekdays or weekends. The Comptroller requested and received a legal opinion as a guide for calculating the works days/hours of such officials which, in the simplest terms, outlines the complexity in such calculations due to the varied nature of these duties and the time spent on them from one position to the next - even if they are the same positions, such as the four Councilmembers in Rotterdam. It is based on this opinion, that the Comptroller has directed municipalities to begin logging hours worked in the capacity of their elected positions. His office intends to use the logs they have created to calculate an average for elected officials. It is this average they intend to utilize in determining the benefits to be collected at their age of retirement, whether or not they serve in their elected duties up to that age or not. For example, if the average turns out to be, say one fifth of a full time work week, they will annually collect one fifth of the benefits afforded to officials based on the salaries paid for their positions. We have identified some inherent problems in this method. First, this would allow some officials to collect more, or less, than they should, as some elected officials spend a lot more, or less, time than others on those duties related to their elected positions. This is unfair to both the officials who spend considerably more time on their duties, and to the taxpayers who pay more than they should for those who spend less than that average time. Second, what qualifies as position-related duties is left to the individual official. There is the potential for wide interpretation as to what qualifies. Those with an ability for the clever use of words could describe unrelated work as legitimate work-related actions. Third, there is no system of verification built into this legislation. Elected officials are basically on the "honor" system. Let's face it, there is bound to be inflated reports by some of these elected representatives. Angelo has already been encouraged to submit an inflated record of his time spent on County business, which he has refused to do. He has in fact not submitted anything as yet because he wanted to research this further. Fortunately for his constituents, and possibly New York State taxpayers at large, he has done so. It is based on these findings and conclusions that Angelo intends to appeal to both the Comptroller and elected officials to withdraw from the retirement system altogether, with some exceptions. These would include full time elected officials who are career politicians and hold no other employment, such as Jim Tedisco or Hugh Farley, just to name familiar examples. It would also include part time elected officials who hold no other job and have served in their elected positions for a number of years...say 20, or 25 or even 30 years. It is Angelo's position that while under the current system and soon-to-be requirements that many of these individual benefits will be rather small, collectively it is enormous when you consider the number of these local elected officials across the state, and New York State simply cannot afford it...especially when he considers it so unnecessary. Most, if not all of these oficials have full time jobs and retirement benefits of their own. Angelo does not feel that taxpayers should provide them with an unnecessary dose of double-dipping. Finally, where the Rotterdam Town Board and the Schenectady County Legislature are concerned, there is a distinction to be made. Schenectady County Legislators are already keeping, and possibly fudging these logs because they know they are going to have to start doing this, even though they have not yet passed, or even introduced the resolution that would require them to do so. Angelo is the only one who has not submitted any such record for reasons aforementioned. Rotterdam officials, as far as can be determined, has not yet begun to log their work hours, but will first pass the required resolution to do so on Wednesday night. Whether they will record honest, accurate records remains to be seen, but how could we possibly know for sure? It should be noted that Councilmember DellaVilla intends to opt out of this system, as Angelo immediately intends to do as well.
424-5248 
Logged
