By Elizabeth Ganga
Lohud
NEW YORK — The creation in 2012 of a new pension tier with lower benefits has been seen as a promising change for municipalities that will save them money in the long run — but not for a decade or two until enough new employees come into the system to make a difference.
Because of the retirement of large classes of correction officers in Westchester and Rockland that joined the public workforce around 1990, the savings are actually arriving early in those departments. The changeover in staffing is making a measurable difference in personnel costs, both in salaries and benefits.
In Westchester, which has 698 correction officers out of 862 employees in the department, 24 percent of the officers were hired after January 2010, putting them in the last two tiers of the pension system, tiers V and VI. Of those, nearly 16 percent are in tier VI, meaning they pay more into the system and receive lower benefits after retirement.
“Correction is definitely our highest turnover department,” where 60 or 70 officers are hired at a time, said Gideon Grande, a budget analyst for Westchester.
Full story: Tax Watch: Pension tier savings arrive early in correction departments