Surge stalls state check [Times Union, Albany, N.Y.]

Jan. 07--ALBANY --State workers have been forced to wait up to 10 months before they know the worth of their total retirement benefit because the system is still swamped by a special 2010 retirement incentive.

The backlog is no surprise to John Romeo, who is among the retirees who took advantage of the incentive enacted under former Gov. David Paterson.

A longtime actor at the now-defunct New York State Theater Institute based in the Capital Region, Romeo put in his papers at the end of 2010.

"I didn't know what was going to happen," he said. His first check came on Jan. 18 -- for unused vacation pay and by Feb. 4 he was getting a check worth two-thirds of his final pension.

The final amount wasn't straightened out in until July.

"They basically said there is nothing we can do You are in the system and were working on it," Romeo said.

But former state senator and convicted federal felon Carl Kruger, a Brooklyn Democrat, will get his full pension check much sooner.

Why? Lawmakers almost always get their checks earlier because their pensions are easier to calculate than an ordinary career state workers.

Rather than gathering data from what may be multiple public employers agencies, calculating overtime, unused sick and vacation time and other factors that need to be included, legislative pensions are relatively straightforward and can be processed more rapidly.

"For a legislator, we know what their salary was because it is fixed," said Eric Sumberg, a comptrollers office spokesman.

As elected officials, he said legislators do not receive overtime or vacation time, so the retirement system doesn't have to wait to receive additional information.

State Senate and Assembly members earn base salaries of $79,500 plus whatever "lulus" or stipends for extra assignments, such as committee chairmanships.

Kruger earned $113,500 because he was head of the Senate Finance Committee in 2009 and 2010.

While Kruger's final pension hasn't yet been calculated, it's been estimated at around $70,000 and that could finalized within weeks. He is set for sentencing in April after pleading guilty to federal charges that he sold his office. In addition, Kruger has agreed not to appeal any sentence of up to 11 years and four months in prison. He will pay $450,000 in restitution as part of the plea agreement.

By contrast, rank and file state workers who leave their jobs will get an initial check within weeks of retirement but they are still being advised it could take a half year or longer before the final amount is figured.

The backlog began with the incentive that Paterson offered -- either extra credits or the ability to leave at age 55 after 25 years of service without a penalty

The offer sparked a record 30,772 retirement applications in 2010, compared to 20,228 the year before.

There were 19,362 applications in 2011.

Other complications in figuring a pension include divorces because a former spouse is entitled to a portion of the benefit. For married pensioners, retirees must choose whether they want the full benefit or a plan that would pay a reduced benefit but preserve a percentage for the surviving spouse.

Sumberg said the comptrollers' number crunchers have only recently started catching up with the retirements and the backlog will likely shrink in coming months.

It doesn't appear likely that Gov. Andrew Cuomo will offer a retirement incentive. That is because he got workforce savings through a contract that holds back raises for the next three years and gets workers to pay more toward their health insurance.

Reach Karlin at 454-5758 or [email protected]

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