After three long years the wage freeze is over for county workers. In the early hours of Saturday morning the Nassau Interim Finance Authority voted to lift the freeze. The union leaders and the county Legislature had already agreed to the deal.
With some reluctance, leaders of the PBA, Detectives’ Association and the CSEA have signed off on concessions that will require new members to contribute toward their pensions and health-care plans. This makes them little different than union workers all across America. Businesses and local governments are coming to realize that such concessions are essential if they are to deal with rising health-care and pension costs.
We’d like to assume that since NIFA has approved it that the county has the funds to pay for this deal. That’s a big assumption.
Unfortunately part of the funding is based on anticipated revenue from speed cameras that will be placed in school zones.
This, as we have noted, is nothing but a cash cow thinly veiled as public safety, a cash cow that NIFA itself concedes may not be nearly as productive as promised.
What if people drive carefully in the school zones?
It is regrettable that county workers went three years without pay raises. But concern for these workers might be tempered by awareness that during this time they remained among the highest paid employees in the state.
According to a report titled “What They Make,” published last year by the Empire Center for Public Policy, a dozen of the 20 highest paid local employees in the state worked for the Nassau County Police Department.
Salaries for other county workers have also been generous.
According to the center, the average salary for a Nassau County employee in 2012 was more than $70,000. Westchester is the only county in New York State where public employees are paid more.
Unfortunately the unions have not yet agreed to call off their legal fight with the county for wages lost during the three-year freeze. It was a mistake not to make this part of the concession to end the wage freeze. If the court rules in favor of the unions, everyone loses, including the county workers who will face massive layoffs.
