Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday that his office would investigate "the manipulation of salary and overtime payments that leads to inflated pensions at the expense of taxpayers," citing various cases of state employees who managed to increase their salaries by 30-167%. Cuomo said, "There is a possibility that it's gaming of the system."
The Post explains, "Lifetime pension payments are generally based on the average of an employee's final three years of pay before retirement." And some employees then work more overtime—an example from Cuomo's office, "A police officer earning a base salary of $74,000 took in $125,277 in overtime in his final year, bringing his total income to almost $200,000. Based on this inflated final year’s salary, he then received a $101,333 annual pension."
Therefore, besides the higher salary, Cuomo, who says this pension padding has been going on for "decades," says taxpayers are on the hook for the higher pension payouts as well. The spokeswoman for the state Public Employees Federation told the Daily News, "Accountability lies with the supervisors."
