April 22, 2019
Greetings!
The Newsday article linked herewith illustrates how state mandates such as mandatory arbitration and the Triborough Amendment have led to such outlandish salaries in the public sector.
In 2018, more than 1,200 Suffolk County employees earned in excess of $200,000 a year, amounting to nearly 10% of the county workforce. Nearly 85% of those earners were in law enforcement. Nassau has over 650 employees earning above the $200,000 threshold.
It is one of the reasons why police taxes in Suffolk have risen by about 9% in just the last 2 years.
Arbitration, which is mandated by the state after a negotiation impasse occurs, has fostered a leapfrogging of salaries from one county to another over the last several decades.
The Triborough Amendment gives union employees in New York continued step salary increases, even after the contract has expired. This lessens incentive for municipal unions to provide givebacks in a negotiating process.
The state failed to reform these horrific mandates in its latest budget, but still has the opportunity to do so before the session ends in late June.
These needed reforms will only come about when editorialists and the public at large demand it from our elected officials. The first step in solving a problem is to identify its source [i.e. these burdensome mandates]; the second is to provide a solution [i.e. eliminate arbitration and Triborough]; and the third, and most important, is the political will on the part of our representatives to make the changes.
Our center has identified the problem and the solution. It is now up to members of the public to motivate their representatives to reform this broken system that has led New York to become the state with the most residents fleeing to cheaper pastures.
Sincerely,
Steve Levy, Executive Director
Center for Cost Effective Governance
