Pataki Office: Transit Union Will Not Be Rewarded for Breaking the Law

Governor Pataki yesterday stopped short of saying he would veto a pension refund for transit workers that could cost the state an estimated $110 million.The governor was caught off guard yesterday by press reports that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had approved the refund as part of its tentative contract deal with the transit union, according to an official in his administration.At the urging of the MTA, Mr. Pataki has twice vetoed bills that would have handed the same refund to transit employees, saying that imposing such costs on the MTA “would not be prudent.”Yesterday a spokeswoman for Mr. Pataki, Joanna Rose, said the governor “was not familiar with the details of the agreement” but that the state would “not allow the union leadership to benefit from illegal acts.”By going on strike, Ms. Rose said, “the union leadership broke the law, and we will not reward those who break the law and put their interest before the public interest.”MTA officials, who are operating under a press blackout until the contract is finalized, refused to comment on the cost of the refund or on how many employees would benefit from it.Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno yesterday expressed some concern about the refund but would not comment further until it came before the Legislature, a spokesman for Mr. Bruno, Mark Hansen, said. State lawmakers must approve any changes to the pension system of public employees.Under the contract, transit employees would be refunded the extra contributions they made between 1994 and 2000 to enroll in a pension program that allowed them to retire at 55 instead of 62. Transit employees contributed an additional 2.3% of their salaries a year to the early retirement fund.In 2000 state lawmakers, assuming there would be no refund granted, eliminated the extra contribution. Since then, the union has pressed Albany to return to the employees the extra contributions that were paid during those six years. The money has been held in a separate retirement reserve fund.The governor in his 2001 veto suggested the refund ought to be used as a bargaining chip in future negotiations between the union and the MTA.“The costly benefit that this bill would confer should be the product of collective bargaining negotiations and should not be granted unilaterally outside the confines of an agreement that has already been entered into,” he said.

Pataki Office: Transit Union Will Not Be Rewarded for Breaking the Law

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