State Pols’ Pro-Union Ploy: Sweetening the Pension Pot

THE ISSUE: The 119 bills before the Legislature that would boost pension benefits for public-union members.

The long-established practice of politicians using public resources to pander to unions and keep themselves in office should concern everyone. But it’s unfair to single out state court officers and other law-enforcement professionals (“Sick ‘Sweeteners,’ ” Editorial, April 23).

They are simply seeking a level playing field, and they often incur disabling injuries in the line of duty.

Term limits would help keep politicians from manipulating the system to benefit themselves at public expense.

Charles Compton The Bronx

In “Unions can pig out” (April 23), The Post wrongly attacked a bill I authored, S.1457, as simply a sweetener for “union pals.”

This is grossly inaccurate. The purpose of this bill is to correct the pension provisions to include mandatory overtime pay in a union member’s final average-salary calculation.

If employees are required to work overtime and potentially face discipline if they decline, that overtime should be included in an employee’s final average-salary calculation.

This bill is clearly far from pension pork. This legislation is not a sweetener but an effort to fairly treat public employees, like our snowplow drivers and firstresponders who are, at times, mandated to work overtime.

They deserve to have their pension payments reflect the mandatory work that they undertake as a part of their jobs.

Sen. Tony Avella (D-Queens) Whitestone

Peter Abbate and Martin Golden, the two Albany politicians championing the extension of retirement benefits for state and local civil servants, are my assemblyman and state senator, respectively.

Their true constituents are the public-employee unions who contribute to their campaigns, not the residents of the workingclass districts they represent.

Workers in the private sector, like me and my neighbors, can only dream of the great deal these public employees receive.

And yet the benefits are never enough for them or their water-carriers in Albany.

Dennis Middlebrooks Brooklyn

Of all of the publicunion “sweeteners” mentioned, I think that the one regarding mandatory overtime is valid.

If you must work overtime, then it should count toward your pension.

Charlie Honadel Venice, Fla.