De Blasio’s Opposition Dooms Police/Fire Bid For Disability Equality

A bill providing city cops and firefighters hired after 2009 the same disability-pension rights as more-senior colleagues failed to advance in Albany last week, with opposition by Mayor de Blasio the primary reason.

A couple of weeks earlier, the bill, which had already been approved by the State Senate and had the expressed support of Governor Cuomo to grant those newer employees a tax-free pension equal to 75 percent of final average salary if they suffered a disabling line-of-duty injury or illness, got sidetracked when the City Council, under prodding from the Mayor and Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, passed a home-rule message improving the lackluster benefit they would receive under Tier 3 of the pension system but falling short of the Tier 2 disability provision that applies to those hired between 1973 and 2009.