Bill Introduced For 9/11 Death Benefit Payment

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

The State Legislature has introduced a bill amending a state pension law to give line-of-duty death benefits to public employees who die from 9/11-related illnesses.

LOU MATARAZZO: Not expecting big city fight.

Detectives' Endowment Association President Michael J. Palladino said the intent was to "close a gap" in the presumptive disability law signed by Governor Pataki in June 2005.

No Death Provision

That law awards disability pensions to public employees who fall ill due to their clean-up and recovery work at numerous sites related to Ground Zero, but doesn't provide line-of-duty benefits to the families of workers who succumb to 9/11-related illnesses.

The DEA has been pushing to reclassify some 9/11 deaths as line-of-duty since one of its retired members, Det. James Zadroga, 34, died in January from a combination of diseases that a New Jersey Medical Examiner tied to exposure to toxic substances at Ground Zero.

Detective Zadroga worked for nearly 500 hours at the site after it was declared a crime scene by Federal investigators. He, like many of the city's Detectives, sifted through rubble at Ground Zero, the morgue and the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island looking for evidence and other remnants. He retired in 2005 on a tax-free three-quarter disability pension that his family can continue to receive for the next eight years.

A Big Difference

If the law introduced in the Legislature is approved in both houses and signed into law by Mr. Pataki, the Zadroga family would be eligible for full death benefits, including a monthly tax-free payment based on 100 percent of Detective Zadroga's salary the last year he worked. His four-year-old daughter Tylerann could collect the benefit until she turned 19, or 23 if she was a full-time college student.

DEA Legislative Director Lou Matarazzo said the proposal was a "complicated piece of legislation" because it seeks to cover all public employees.

According to the fiscal note attached to the bill by the union's actuaries, the yearly cost would be approximately $3.5 million. Mr. Matarazzo said he thought actual costs might be less.

He said he didn't anticipate a struggle with the Bloomberg administration over the bill, even though the Mayor had adamantly opposed the 9/11 Disability Law because of the potential financial implications for the city.

Support on Both Sides

The line-of-duty bill has the support of both Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. It would grant line-of-duty death benefits to those Ground Zero workers who retire with a disability pension as a result of ailments they developed from their 9/11-related work, but then later die because of those ailments. The bill would officially recognize that the deaths of these workers were directly related to their efforts at Ground Zero.

"I am gratified to see that this important issue has been so well received by our legislative leaders," said Mr. Palladino. "The passage of this bill would be a landmark decision to recognize those who sacrificed their lives for 9/11 and would properly compensate the families for their tragic loss."

In addition to pushing Albany to act on behalf of public employees, the DEA and leaders from several other uniformed unions met April 27 with the newly-appointed Federal 9/11 Health Czar, Dr. John Howard to discuss 9/11-related health issues.

Mr. Matarazzo called the meeting "productive," and said the unions had been gratified by Dr. Howard's interest in learning about the health and safety conditions workers encountered in the aftermath of 9/11.