Michael Fitzpatrick’s Secret, Relentless Plan To Save The Pension System
Most conservative Assembly member pushes radical proposal on every pol he meets
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:50:00
Everywhere Michael Fitzpatrick goes, he carries a message.
The Suffolk assemblyman has made it his mission to speak to every single elected official in the state of New York about his plans to reform the state’s pension system by taking away lawmakers’ generous retirement benefits.
“I would say, ‘He’s a relentless advocate’ would be an understatement,” said Brian Kolb, the Republican minority leader in the Assembly. Fitzpatrick dogged Kolb for weeks until finally reaching him by phone on a recent Saturday morning.
“I said, ‘Hello, Mike,’ and then, 40 minutes later, I said, ‘Mike, I know you can’t see this, but I’m waving my white handkerchief. I give up,’” Kolb recalled. “I was supporting the bill, and I couldn’t get a word in edge-wise.”
Fitzpatrick’s plan would wipe out an entire class of the state’s retirement system by altering the way lawmakers’ pension benefits are determined.
Currently, politicos’ retirement plans—often valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars a year—are guaranteed for the rest of their lives. Fitzpatrick’s plan would take away that guarantee and bring public officials’ pensions more in line with standard 401(k) plans, in which benefits fluctuate depending on the market.
Fitzpatrick’s bill would affect every public official in the state, from the governor on down to the superintendent for sanitation in Hempstead. He estimates that it would save the state and localities hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of several years.
Politicians throughout New York have gotten the Fitzpatrick treatment at one time or another.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo was Fitzpatrick’s most recent mark. After a speech in Nassau on local government consolidation, Fitzpatrick elbowed his way through a crowd of admires to deliver a crisp 14-word sermon: “Taxpayers should no longer fund the defined benefits of elected officials or political appointees,” he said.
“I just kind of button-holed him for fifteen seconds and told him about my bill—A6932—for pension reform. I said, ‘It’s a great idea, check it out,’” Fitzpatrick recalled, adding: “I haven’t heard back from him.”
Cuomo was the latest on Fitzpatrick’s list, which already includes David Paterson, Rudy Giuliani, John Faso, Ed Cox, Tom DiNapoli (whose aides suggested the plan might be unconstitutional) and George Pataki. Fitzpatrick has aggressively sought press attention, traveling to meet with the Buffalo News, calling Newsday repeatedly and e-mailing Fred Dicker and even Sean Hannity (neither has responded).
“Everywhere I go—political functions, civic functions—I talk about this,” he said. “I call it ‘fiscal carbon monoxide,’ this pension issue. People don’t see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, until they have to pay for it.”
Not everyone agrees that Fitzpatrick’s plan is the most effective way to cut costs or prevent pension abuse.
“If you’re going to do a political lift for defined contribution, and get defined contribution done somehow in the state, I wouldn’t start there,” said Elizabeth Lyman of the Citizens Budget Commission. “There are other ways of dealing with the burrowing-in phenomenon of political appointees … defined contribution is just more radical and probably less politically doable.”
Understood solely in ideological terms, the plan could be dismissed as the latest in a series of protests from the angry right, elevating the wealthy taxpayers of Fitzpatrick’s North Shore district over those who seek and rely on government service.
But Fitzpatrick cautions against this interpretation and de-emphasizes the cost-savings to avoid just that perception. Instead, his plan stabs at the heart of what seems to frustrate many people about government: That politicians game the system, securing lavish rewards for themselves at the expense of taxpayers. And once they deploy their tentacles, they never leave.
“Why, in Albany, does everyone take the path of least resistance?” Fitzpatrick said. “The strongest reason is the desire not just to keep the job, but more importantly, to maintain the defined-benefit plan going forward.”
Witness the patronage mills at work in municipalities like Smithtown, Fitzpatrick says. There, term limits have been the law for years. But most elected officials hop-scotch from one government job to another, as in the case of Suffolk County’s chief financial officer, who, at 60, just left to work for the Long Island Power Authority at a higher salary. If he stays there for three years, he will retire with a guaranteed, taxpayer-funded compensation package of hundreds of thousands a year.
“Term limits only treat a symptom and not a disease. The disease is the defined-benefit pension system,” he said, adding that his plan “stops double-dipping, it stops pension spiking, it diminishes the attractiveness of patronage.”
The spiel has been finely tuned and calibrated for all sorts of occasions. Each of Fitzpatrick’s colleagues seems to have a story.
“I was at the same meeting with members of school boards,” said Assembly Member Michelle Schimel, a Democrat from Nassau. “And we were talking about different types of reforms and language. And we were actually working on plans going forward, because obviously on Long Island a big concern is property taxes. And he proceeded to go on about his bill.”
Schimel expressed a glimmer of interest, unaware that doing so would only encourage Fitzpatrick. He has since given her the bill number, faxed her a copy, called several times to follow-up and expressed hope that she might, improbably, be his first majority co-sponsor.
“I don’t think we’ve ever voted the same on any issue,” said Schimel, who said she agrees with Fitzpatrick on exactly nothing.
Fitzpatrick admits that his advocacy has, perhaps, attracted an enemy or two. But the system needs a radical jolt, he argues, and someone to stir the pot.
“I’ve been beat up for it. I’ve had the robo-calls in my district,” he said. “The years I’ve been in Albany, the issues are still the same … What’s that definition of insanity we’ve all been taught?”
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ABOVE: Michael Fitzpatrick has a plan to change state pensions he pitches to nearly everyone he meets.
The Suffolk assemblyman has made it his mission to speak to every single elected official in the state of New York about his plans to reform the state’s pension system by taking away lawmakers’ generous retirement benefits.
“I would say, ‘He’s a relentless advocate’ would be an understatement,” said Brian Kolb, the Republican minority leader in the Assembly. Fitzpatrick dogged Kolb for weeks until finally reaching him by phone on a recent Saturday morning.
“I said, ‘Hello, Mike,’ and then, 40 minutes later, I said, ‘Mike, I know you can’t see this, but I’m waving my white handkerchief. I give up,’” Kolb recalled. “I was supporting the bill, and I couldn’t get a word in edge-wise.”Fitzpatrick’s plan would wipe out an entire class of the state’s retirement system by altering the way lawmakers’ pension benefits are determined.
Currently, politicos’ retirement plans—often valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars a year—are guaranteed for the rest of their lives. Fitzpatrick’s plan would take away that guarantee and bring public officials’ pensions more in line with standard 401(k) plans, in which benefits fluctuate depending on the market.
Fitzpatrick’s bill would affect every public official in the state, from the governor on down to the superintendent for sanitation in Hempstead. He estimates that it would save the state and localities hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of several years.
Politicians throughout New York have gotten the Fitzpatrick treatment at one time or another.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo was Fitzpatrick’s most recent mark. After a speech in Nassau on local government consolidation, Fitzpatrick elbowed his way through a crowd of admires to deliver a crisp 14-word sermon: “Taxpayers should no longer fund the defined benefits of elected officials or political appointees,” he said.
“I just kind of button-holed him for fifteen seconds and told him about my bill—A6932—for pension reform. I said, ‘It’s a great idea, check it out,’” Fitzpatrick recalled, adding: “I haven’t heard back from him.”
Cuomo was the latest on Fitzpatrick’s list, which already includes David Paterson, Rudy Giuliani, John Faso, Ed Cox, Tom DiNapoli (whose aides suggested the plan might be unconstitutional) and George Pataki. Fitzpatrick has aggressively sought press attention, traveling to meet with the Buffalo News, calling Newsday repeatedly and e-mailing Fred Dicker and even Sean Hannity (neither has responded).
“Everywhere I go—political functions, civic functions—I talk about this,” he said. “I call it ‘fiscal carbon monoxide,’ this pension issue. People don’t see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, until they have to pay for it.”
Not everyone agrees that Fitzpatrick’s plan is the most effective way to cut costs or prevent pension abuse.
“If you’re going to do a political lift for defined contribution, and get defined contribution done somehow in the state, I wouldn’t start there,” said Elizabeth Lyman of the Citizens Budget Commission. “There are other ways of dealing with the burrowing-in phenomenon of political appointees … defined contribution is just more radical and probably less politically doable.”
Understood solely in ideological terms, the plan could be dismissed as the latest in a series of protests from the angry right, elevating the wealthy taxpayers of Fitzpatrick’s North Shore district over those who seek and rely on government service.
But Fitzpatrick cautions against this interpretation and de-emphasizes the cost-savings to avoid just that perception. Instead, his plan stabs at the heart of what seems to frustrate many people about government: That politicians game the system, securing lavish rewards for themselves at the expense of taxpayers. And once they deploy their tentacles, they never leave.
“Why, in Albany, does everyone take the path of least resistance?” Fitzpatrick said. “The strongest reason is the desire not just to keep the job, but more importantly, to maintain the defined-benefit plan going forward.”
Witness the patronage mills at work in municipalities like Smithtown, Fitzpatrick says. There, term limits have been the law for years. But most elected officials hop-scotch from one government job to another, as in the case of Suffolk County’s chief financial officer, who, at 60, just left to work for the Long Island Power Authority at a higher salary. If he stays there for three years, he will retire with a guaranteed, taxpayer-funded compensation package of hundreds of thousands a year.
“Term limits only treat a symptom and not a disease. The disease is the defined-benefit pension system,” he said, adding that his plan “stops double-dipping, it stops pension spiking, it diminishes the attractiveness of patronage.”
The spiel has been finely tuned and calibrated for all sorts of occasions. Each of Fitzpatrick’s colleagues seems to have a story.
“I was at the same meeting with members of school boards,” said Assembly Member Michelle Schimel, a Democrat from Nassau. “And we were talking about different types of reforms and language. And we were actually working on plans going forward, because obviously on Long Island a big concern is property taxes. And he proceeded to go on about his bill.”
Schimel expressed a glimmer of interest, unaware that doing so would only encourage Fitzpatrick. He has since given her the bill number, faxed her a copy, called several times to follow-up and expressed hope that she might, improbably, be his first majority co-sponsor.
“I don’t think we’ve ever voted the same on any issue,” said Schimel, who said she agrees with Fitzpatrick on exactly nothing.
Fitzpatrick admits that his advocacy has, perhaps, attracted an enemy or two. But the system needs a radical jolt, he argues, and someone to stir the pot.
“I’ve been beat up for it. I’ve had the robo-calls in my district,” he said. “The years I’ve been in Albany, the issues are still the same … What’s that definition of insanity we’ve all been taught?”
--
ABOVE: Michael Fitzpatrick has a plan to change state pensions he pitches to nearly everyone he meets.
