Firefighters on disability race to retire
Pension-upgrade rule disappears tomorrow
Nearly 30 Boston firefighters with pending disability claims filed for retirement yesterday, just two days before a new state law ends a controversial benefit that allows them to significantly enhance their pensions if they claim career-ending injuries occurred while filling in for a superior at a higher pay grade.
…Suspected disability retirement abuses and pension excesses have been a chronic problem at the Boston Fire Department, prompting an inquiry by the FBI.
A Globe review of city retirement and payroll records last year found that, over the prior six years, 102 Boston firefighters had substantially enhanced their tax-free disability pensions by claiming career-ending injuries while they were filling in for superiors at higher pay grades. Some firefighters have sought the enhanced benefit after filling in for a superior for just one day, leading critics to call it the “king-for-a-day’’ provision.
Of course, the UNION is screaming because their big scam has been shut down. Here’s Robert B. McCarthy, president of the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts,
McCarthy argued that the new law unfairly punishes all injured firefighters, not just those who claim injury while filling in for superiors.
“I don’t think they intended to punish every firefighter who gets injured in the line of duty, and that’s what it does,’’ McCarthy said of the new law. “How am I going to tell my guys to fight a fire and risk their lives if they’re not going to be protected?’’
Protected from what, exactly? Protected from angry taxpayers who are tired of firefighters scamming the system? Protected from the FBI, who is investigating the outrageous behavior of the UNION? Is it part of their job description to game the system for higher pensions? Is that some sort of constitutional right for public employees? The troth must always be open? If you chose to be a firefighter, your job is to “risk their lives” by fighting fires. It is nowhere in the job description that gaming the system is part of the job.
The Mighty Hub Blog is asking the right questions,
It’s hard to believe they could be so brazen. They’re pulling off a scam right before our eyes. But decades-old habits die hard. … Can we also have some serious reforms of an obviously abused ‘disability’ system? Will any Dem legislative leader step forward this morning to demand change? Or is that asking too much from Dem lawmakers who obviously didn’t want reforms in the first place?
Those are rhetorical questions, of course. House speaker Robert A. DeLeo, as we predicted, is dislocating his shoulder patting himself and his fellow hacks on the back for doing the bare minimum,
My View: People spoke and Beacon Hill listened
In the midst of these difficult times, the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate have done what so many thought we could not do — bring true reform to Beacon Hill.
Oh, spare me. All they did was get rid of some real pig at the troth behavior that they created and exploited for decades.
In other Beacon Hill news, the pols raised taxes yesterday by $1 billion including a 25% increase to the sales tax. Nothing says economic development and growth like massive tax increases! Congratulations southern New Hampshire, an economic boom is on the way, courtesy of fed up Massachusetts taxpayers. The feedbags are on and they are not done yet bleeding us dry. Up next, a new and improved GAS TAX.
Patrick hints at hike in gas tax
Governor Deval Patrick signed a budget yesterday that imposes more than $1 billion in additional taxes on Massachusetts residents and visitors, most of it through the first increase in the state sales tax in 33 years, even as he declined to rule out a future boost in the state gas tax.
We were warned that if we voted for the repeal of the state income tax in November 2008, we would see higher gas taxes, sales taxes and less state aide to cities and towns. Well, we they voted to keep the income tax, and we got all those other taxes anyway.
Welcome to Taxachusetts, home of a runaway hackarama and a comatose public.