Won't You Please Help the Poor Government Workers?

In 2005, when I sold my home in Westchester County, NY, I had to pay a departure tax to my ex-town. Several percent, I kid you not — for the dastardly act of leaving said town which my wife and I, thanks to hard work and good times, had supported with all the other taxes levied on us during our six-year stint there.

Now the Times reveals that the money is needed in part to provide public servants with pensions that are richer than any salaries they've made in their lives. Some are taking voluntary retirement in their forties.

Nice work if you can get it.

Comments

[Rogier]

After I posted the same link on an Internet forum, a police officer took offense. Because I think it reveals something of the schism between law enforcement and ordinary citizens, I'm sharing the verbatim exchange here. Not sure if it's enlightening. Probably not -- other than seeing the thin blue line at work. In the eyes of many (most?) officers, their colleagues can do no wrong. I also thought it somewhat noteworthy that he identifies himself as a "warrior" in the very first paragraph. Interesting implications to that one.

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COP: Great point! I mean all they do is run around every night in NYC getting shot, stabbed, spit on, in foot chases, exposed to HIV, Hep C etc. The unmitigated gall of some people! And just so there is no confusion... I've been one of those overpaid public servants for 22 years. I've been shot at, stabbed, been in several car wrecks on the job and will likely die of a heart attack before I hit 60. I'll be able to "retire" at 48 years of age with either a monthly pension or a lump sum payment. My son is nearly 4. I pray every day that I live long enough to see him graduate high school. I doubt I'll be around to see him walk down the aisle and I doubt I'll live long enough to see my grandchildren. I think I've earned every penny. Until you're standing beside me with a gun in your hand, staring down some crackhead, I don't believe you have any right to say shit to me or any other warrior.

ME: 1. In a typical year, cops aren't even in the top 10 of dangerous professions.
2. The vast majority of these busy bees are workers for the various counties. Your typical bureaucrats. Not cops.
3. Even wearing a badge does not give anyone license to abuse the overtime system, as these people did, and sponge off taxpayers by collecting six-figure pensions from age 40 to age 80.
4. Shot and stabbed? Even in New York City, that would be bit of a stretch; see under (1). I don't doubt that cops do a job that comes with quite a bit of risk, but still, it's a lot more dangerous to be a farmer, a fisherman, or a logger. And Westchester County, a bit North of Manhattan, where the Times focuses its reporting for the article, is among the toniest and highest-income areas in the country. I lived there for about eight years. A typical crime in Westchester is a lawyer smoking a doobie in his car, or a home owner who puts his garbage out a couple of hours early.
5. A DEPARTURE tax. Think about that. You have to pay your ex-local government if you have the gall to move to another county or another state. In my case, when I sold my house, the tax bill to my ex-town amounted to more than $20,000. That was of course on top of the actual real-estate taxes I'd paid without complaining year after year. You'd be OK with that, then, if you were hit up to the tune of $20K for the crime of moving?
 
COP: http://www.odmp.org/customize.php?agencyid=4191 Looks like Westchester County only lost 17 cops over the years, including one just last year. Maybe you missed the newspaper article? And the Sheriff has only lost 3! Awesome! Oh, I also served 4 years in the Marines protecting your happy self. You're welcome!

ME: Thanks, but you can drop the macho attitude now. I have no beef with public servants who do their jobs bravely and honorably. That means I have no beef with you if you fit the category. However, I do have a big problem with public servants who see the taxpayers' teat as their ticket to a leisurely all-expenses-paid lifestyle at age forty, and who bend and break the rules to get there while taking money from me and my kids. Like the asswipes in the article I linked to.

COP: Those "asswipes" worked overtime so they could provide for their families and get better pension benefits. All I heard 20 years ago was "Why would you become a cop and get shit pay when you can become a doctor, lawyer, business exec etc and make more money?" I suffered low pay because I knew that no matter the economy the job would be there and so would the benefits. Now that the economy has gone to shit thanks to those same business execs everyone wants to cut the benefits of those who serve and protect. And my macho attitude keeps me and the people I protect alive every day, so I won't drop it. You started this shit storm, now cowboy up and have some... You know, Westchester County has only lost about 32 cops over the years. Can't imagine even paying them. Maybe they can just get some volunteers huh? I'm sure you would have no problem strapping on a gun and a vest now would you? maybe missing Christmas, New Years with your family? Working a midnight shift? Come on now, I'm sure the death benefits are fine, jump on in.

ME: Does the word anecdotal mean anything to you? Could we look at some slightly more meaningful numbers? Most dangerous professions, perhaps? Cops currently aren't even in the top 10, according to Dept. of Labor statistics. For instance, http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleri...angerous-jobs/

COP: Come ride with me one night... I'll bring you to a part of town you wouldn't last 5 minutes in. Once you get home and change your underwear maybe you'll be thankful for those like me... But I doubt it. Perception is reality. You perceive me as an asswipe who gets paid way too much and can retire way too early. You don't want to know my perception of you.

ME: No idea why you think I'm talking about you. I'm a photographer, and yet I am strangely resigned to the idea that a certain number of other photographers are unethical, or barely competent, or both. There's no thin blue or pink or purple line that compels me to defend, with various over-emotional and irrelevant arguments, everybody who's ever taken a photo. Would that most cops were so clear-eyed.

[hermesten]

This guy is full of himself to the point of being delusional --you sure he's really a cop?

Whatever he is, he lives in a fantasy world where all these people he thinks are so bad ass in that oh so dangerous part of town he babbles about respond to cops the way they do to everyone else. And we have to ask, why is it so dangerous in that part of town if the cops are doing their job, and they're all so deserving of respect? Wouldn't they in partnership with a grateful public have stamped out crime?

Furthermore, women of all shapes and sizes are cops, not to mention all the 300 pound lard asses I see in cop costumes all the time --so what's all the silly swagger about?

I'd have no problem strapping on a gun and a vest and doing cop work. It's a lot easier than being a civilian where you pay consequences for any mistakes you make defending yourself. And if I was just starting out today with the kind of money cops make now (especially when retirement is figured in), I just might join up.

If this chucklehead is praying everyday not to die, as he claims, maybe he's not really cut out to be a cop. A cop with such a distorted view of the risks and exaggerated fear of death is likely to over-perceive and over-react to potential threats, and is probably trigger happy and dangerous to the public.