NYC Reservists Face Steep Payback

City Employees In Military Post 9/11 Must Refund Salaries For Time Lost

(AP)  More than 1,600 military reservists who took a leave from city jobs to go on active duty after the 2001 terrorist attacks now face repaying months or years of their salaries under a deal initially designed to help them weather the financial stress of their deployments.

When the city employees — mostly police officers — were called up by their reserve units, they each faced the suspension of city pay and benefits while they served.

In a bid to help out, the city proposed a plan to keep those benefits intact by allowing the workers to keep getting city paychecks, as long as they agreed to pay back either their city salary or their military pay — whichever was smaller — when they returned to work.

Nearly everyone took the deal.

But now the employees are being asked to make good on their salary refund promise, and in some cases they are being asked to pay back more than they took home.

The problem, officials said, is that the veterans are obligated to repay their gross salaries, even though a third of that pay went to taxes and other deductions.

The reservists can also get reimbursed for those taxes, but will need to do so through their tax returns, said Martha Hirst, city commissioner of administrative services.

In an additional complication, the city has been calculating stipends the reservists received for military housing and food as part of their military pay, dramatically increasing the total they now owe.

For some workers, the tab can run as high as $200,000. The police department expects to recover $15 million, said Assistant Police Chief Michael Collins.

The city began pressing for the money this week, with hundreds of police officers receiving letters with their paychecks warning them that they must either make payment arrangements within 15 days, or face legal action.

City officials have already waited several years in some cases to begin collecting the money, but some of the police officers said the delay hurt more than it helped.

After hearing nothing from the city for so long about their extra salary, they assumed it would never be collected and stopped saving.

"Like most middle-class Americans, you get a windfall, you fix the roof and the sidewalk and pay off credit-card debt," Michael Donohue, a police sergeant, told The New York Times. Donohue, a sergeant major in the Army Reserves, said he owed the city about $100,000.

The City Council will consider a resolution Monday asking Mayor Michael Bloomberg to eliminate the housing and food allowances as military income, thus lowering the tab for some workers.

The city also plans to give its workers accounting help to sort out any financial problems, and Hirst said the city would work out "very friendly repayment agreements."

[bb_beavers]

THE MILITARY PAID THEM A SALARY, HOUSING AND MEAL ALLOWANCES. THEY WERE GUARANTEED A JOB ON RETURN. WHAT WAS THE SECOND CHECK FOR. THEY MADE THE DEAL TO REPAY THEN THEY SHOULD. IF THEY WERE RECIEVING MORE THAN THEY WERE MAKING BEFORE SOMETHING SHOULD HAVE BEEN RETURNED THEN, NOT USED FOR SOMETHING ELSE. THIS IS THE GREED OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WORKER. THEY WANT TO BE PAID LIKE OTHERS, BUT DO NOT HAVE THE WORRIES. A LOT OF THOSE THAT RETURNED DID NOT HAVE A JOB TO RETURN TO. THE GUARD IS NOT REQUIRED IT IS TO AID THE COUNTRY, YOU KNOW THE DEAL SO DO NOT SIGN UP IF YOU DO NOT LIKE IT.

[thgdriver]

I don't think the taxpayers have a problem absorbing the costs. At least, speaking for myself, I do not.

However, if we give two paychecks to just one person, we must do it for all.

N Y did not set this up properly from the getgo, although I commend them for their efforts to help our armed forces, Just as our taxes are paid before we get our pay, the smaller of the two checks should have went to the city and never to the person.

We all know how easy it is to pocket money, or get an interest free loan, 100,000.00 in one case I read, but payback is always a killer.

[archangelric]

I am amazed at the lack of basic english comprehension dislayed in these comments.

These people got the same paycheck from the military everybody else got. They ALSO got a paycheck from NYC at their former pay rate, with the promise that they pay back THE SMALLER of the two (inother words, receive only 1 pay check by returning the smaller one)

They kepy BOTH.

I agree, they should only have to pay back the net pay NOW, the excess taxes WHEN THEY GET THE TAX REFUND and ONLY on the refunded portion (most likely some will not be refundable)

NYC did NOT have to continue their regular paychecks and went out of it's way to help these individuals out and should be commended for it, not condemned for trying to collect overpayments.After all, they also have to look out for the taxpayers interests.

[thgdriver]

weave655;

I agree with you, we can't do enough for the men and women of our armed forces. But, as we ask the city of New York to absorb the costs, what do we say to the majority of the men and women across the country who did not get two paychecks, but served just as the same?

[platoonwife]

This issue is unfortunately not as clear cut as "they signed the papers, they should pay it back". Soldiers receive very little time to get their affairs in order upon receiving their deployment orders. So with a day or two before leaving for Iraq, here were our options - loose all of the benefits you've worked your career for OR stay on base pay and your benefits for your families (health benefits were key - every other City in the Country has a well thought out plan for their civil servicemembers - not us). The City is seeking the lesser of the two salaries received. Fine. But if the lesser of the two salaries is the NYPD pay, they want GROSS money back - meaning they want us to re-pay the taxes we ALREADY paid the Federal and Local government during deployment. IF the lesser of the two salaries is the military pay, the City wants to include Federal allowances (Basic allowance for Housing and Basic Allowance for Sustinance) as BASE pay. That money (1) is non-taxable and doesn't count as income and (2) the city does not give us an equivolent allowance - we didn't get overtime from the City - just base pay. Not to mention, the City wants FULL LUMP SUM from retiring employees (this will prevent people from retiring) or from current employees, 10% GROSS bi-weekly pay. These are Civil Service people - Who can afford to have $600 a month deducted from their paychecks? Not to mention the tax implications this has on taxes we paid years ago.

[weave655]

I'm sorry but I think it preposterous to expect these men & women who risked their lives in the service of our country to get hit with such a huge burden! I understand that while they all signed the agreement, I'm sure they never DREAMED that they would get hit with GROSS wages, let alone the additional cost of housing, etc.

Give the people a break and at least let them pay back (over a LONG period of time) the net wage and leave it at that. (I still think NY should just "suck it up" and absorb the costs - its minor in terms of their other ridiculous expenditures. At least this would be a worthy cause for a change!

[thgdriver]

As unfair this seems at first glance
It seems the smart thing to do would have been to have their military pay sent directly back to the city. while drawing their regular salary and benifits from the city.

Remember a lot of military people who serve did not have this option at all. They only get the military wage and must tough it out.

An agreement is just that, an agreement. I belong to a union, when the majority votes for something I disagree with, I am still bound by the majority vote!

[htfdmedic]

As ridiculous as this sounds keep this in mind, these members agreed to this. As a member of a union, I have the right to disagree with any item that is offered to the union by the city. If my union passes any items I do not agree with, I must accept them, and follow them. It is the same when a person enters into an agreement to buy a home, or a car, you have to follow the terms of an agreement, or risk losing it.
What is more ridiculous is that their union(s) allowed this agreement to be passed!
Shame on them for not saving because they thought the city would "forgive" the payback.

[brushtail22]

I grew up in the Air Force so I know at least second hand that the military has always gotten screwed. Now the NYC police????!!!! They went to serve and protect their entire country, not just their city. Why are they being required to pay back ANYTHING????!!!!!!

[newsjeff-2009]

I agree with the comment of above, but asking a multi-millionaire mayor a republican at that to help working-class American is something that would shock me to death if it actually happened. I have yet to see our GOP controlled congress and senate pass anything this year to help working-class America, unless everyone in America thinks that same *** marriage,abortion,phasing out Social Security and two men or two women living together in a place is the only major problems facing our country. When I was a kid when Ronald Regan was president he and all other republicans focused more on running the country instead of nosing into people's personal and private lives.

[cjw3cma]

As long as the wording of the city's agreement that each and every employee signed stated exactly what was expected of them (delineating the housing pay, etc. and gross city pay, etc.) then these brave city employees have nothing to do but pay the city back. This story, as with so many media reports is SHORT on details that would assist the reader in a better understanding of the facts. But that seems to be the way the media issues news stories these days - short on fact and more tabloid style.

Maybe the multi-millionaire mayor can cough up the few million and help save his police force from mass resignations that will surely happen when and if the city sues these reservists.

[emtak1]

this is a ridiculous. we send are countrymen over to die in a losing war and then rake them over the coals when they come home...***?