NYPost: FDNY pension board to review firefighters' disabilities

[INIT915 1,119]

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/recall_for_ickly_fdnyers_8t6Oa1n5KiIhRrOUabQePL

For the first time in 35 years, the Fire Department pension board is recalling two retired firefighters to determine whether the medical disabilities that allowed them to leave at a comfortable three-quarters pay still exist, The Post has learned.

Sources said letters went out last month instructing the two to report for new medical evaluations under the threat of losing their tax-free disability pension checks if they don't show.

The last time anyone could remember the FDNY pension board recalling a retiree for a medical checkup was in 1975, when ex-firefighter Gary Muhrke was asked to explain how he was able to win a race to the top of the Empire State Building after getting out with a bad back.

The medical board accepted his claim that the strength needed to run up 102 flights of stairs was different from that required for firefighting.

[efdcapt115 1,511]

I don't know the process of how guys get out on disability. My understanding is they have to go before a medical review board.

Here's the problem. We had a discussion about the condition of the NYSRS (separate from FDNY/NYPD I think) that showed the system to be 107% funded. The coming storm is two fold; the baby boom generation is retiring, and the proposed change to the way the municipalities have to pay into the system. If it passes the NYS Senate and Cuomo signs it, they can defer payment at a 5% interest rate of repayment. Problem is, take a look at New Jersey. Once a pension system starts going into the "underfunded" class, it only seems to get worse. I think they are at 40% underfunded. That's huge.

Now those of us who work/ed municipal systems all hear the stories, have all seen the examples of guys who try to game the system. Some succeed. This is not good. GREED will kill us all(this comment in no way is meant to slander legitimate disability pensioners). Take a look at the latest audit of the pension system. Get down to page 127 and beyond for some real numbers. Look at the yearly escalation in payouts.

http://www.osc.state.ny.us/retire/word_and_pdf_documents/publications/cafr/cafr_10.pdf

I don't know, but I think speaking economically here, we are in for a kind of a "lost decade" where housing prices continue to slump or remain flat due to the oversupply and the mortgage bubble, the new unemployment "norm" is like 10%, the dollar has lost value, the whole thing looks and feels to me like a deflationary to low inflationary environment for years to come. At some point the pension payouts have got to get in line with the realities of what the system can handle, and what is going to be "enough" for members getting out. That's going to be a subjective number; I took the pay cut and moved to Florida to lower my cost of living, but it really isn't that much lower here. So lifestyle changes have to be made, less dining out, more cooking at home, etc. But some guys can't just pick up and leave. They have a house they invested in, kids in schools they don't want to pull them from. So they obviously need more than me. At some point the escalation has to level out, keeping in line with the realities of the system's ability to fund pensioners, and taxpayers ability to pay their taxes. People see things like these couple of guys they pointed out in that rag Post, and they condemn us all.

The ironic part is many guys that get put out on disability really don't want to leave the job.