Post by coots on Mar 7, 2014 2:36:40 GMT -5
Newsday
Amityville's Budget Woes And Hard Choices
The budget clash playing out in Amityville Village is a cautionary tale about the ways in which generous labor contracts can strangle municipal finances.
Spending on police represents more than 40 percent of Amityville's overall budget. To help make ends meet, officials in the cash-strapped village have asked the police union to reopen a contract that runs through 2018. So far, the union has not agreed. The village wants to freeze the base pay of officers whose gross earnings last year exceeded $150,000. That applies to 20 of the 24 officers -- an unsustainable pay scale.
Village officials say without an agreement they could face three options -- double-digit tax increases, a financial control board or bankruptcy - none of which is palatable to trustees. But Amityville has been struggling for years. It is under "significant fiscal stress," according to the state comptroller, and its debt rating was downgraded last year to a notch above junk bond status, with a warning about its "limited ability to reduce personnel costs." The police contract signed two weeks before last year's village election included some concessions, such as new hires contributing to health case costs, but it also guarantees wages will "mirror" those earned by highly paid Suffolk County police. That defies common sense.
Amityville's Budget Woes And Hard Choices
The budget clash playing out in Amityville Village is a cautionary tale about the ways in which generous labor contracts can strangle municipal finances.
Spending on police represents more than 40 percent of Amityville's overall budget. To help make ends meet, officials in the cash-strapped village have asked the police union to reopen a contract that runs through 2018. So far, the union has not agreed. The village wants to freeze the base pay of officers whose gross earnings last year exceeded $150,000. That applies to 20 of the 24 officers -- an unsustainable pay scale.
Village officials say without an agreement they could face three options -- double-digit tax increases, a financial control board or bankruptcy - none of which is palatable to trustees. But Amityville has been struggling for years. It is under "significant fiscal stress," according to the state comptroller, and its debt rating was downgraded last year to a notch above junk bond status, with a warning about its "limited ability to reduce personnel costs." The police contract signed two weeks before last year's village election included some concessions, such as new hires contributing to health case costs, but it also guarantees wages will "mirror" those earned by highly paid Suffolk County police. That defies common sense.
