Mayor’s New Upgrade For Police/Fire On-Job Disabilities Not Enough

The de Blasio administration, trying to scale down potential costs from significantly improving line-of-duty disability pensions for newer cops and firefighters, June 4 sweetened its proposal less than two weeks before the State Legislature was due to adjourn, but one union leader said it wasn’t nearly good enough.

The police and fire unions have been pushing full equalization of disability benefits to give cops and firefighters hired after 2009 the same tax-free benefit equal to 75 percent of final average salary that would be received by earlier hires who were unable to return to work because of a disabling injury or illness incurred on the job. The de Blasio administration has claimed the cost of doing that would be prohibitive, but when the City Council finally held a hearing May 29 on a bill that had been stalled for more than a year by Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, it became clear that an alternative proposal unveiled by the de Blasio administration May 13 had little support.