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Fat pensions (like doc's 191G) break Nassau's back
By CHUCK BENNETT and KIERAN CROWLEY

Last Updated: 6:39 AM, January 29, 2011

Posted: 12:51 AM, January 29, 2011

Fiscally challenged Nassau County, which lost control over its own finances this week to a state-appointed watchdog, is being hobbled by mandatory pension payments on top of its already bloated payroll, data shows.

Those payments to various state pension funds pay for rich retirements, like the $191,380 a year for retired radiologist Dr. Dvorah Balsam.

The doc, who retired at age 62 in 2005 after working 33 years at Nassau Medical Center, ranked No. 1 for the highest county pension in fiscal year 2010, according to data compiled by the Empire Center.

Balsam now works part-time at Stony Brook University Medical Center for $66,000 a year.

"How can they blame me? I didn't devise the system, I didn't milk the system. I simply did my job," she said.

Because of these pension packages, the indebted county must paid an extra 17 percent on top of its already bloated $830 payroll to the state pension fund each year, according to County Comptroller George Maragos.

The Nassau Interim Finance Authority, which invoked a state law on Wednesday to seize fiscal control because it deemed the county's 2011 budget unrealistic, has the power to freeze wages but can't recoup years of oversized pension contributions.

Of the county's 14,383 pensioners, there are 414 who have pensions exceeding $100,000 a year.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/l.....Sa1GZO#ixzz1CcJxC1WA

see how F'EN stupid this government guaranteed pension web looks.....we have egg on our faces for such shortsighted planning/promising and
vote purchasing......what a JOKE.....