Repayment Criteria Ripped
Ask Mayor to Ease Vets' Debt Burden

By REUVEN BLAU

The Bloomberg administration Sept. 25 said that it will review how city workers returning from military duty must pay back their supplemental earnings, after many complained of unfair calculations that included housing and food allowances, which led to bills of up to $200,000 for some officers.

MARTHA HIRST: Standards under review.

Martha K. Hirst, Commissioner of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, made the announcement at a City Council hearing in lower Manhattan packed with firefighters and other uniformed personnel who have served overseas.

Seek Complete Slide

Many City Council Members, union officials, and the affected officers are urging Mayor Bloomberg to completely forgive the debt, as other large cities such as Los Angeles and Philadelphia have done.

But that does not appear likely considering DCAS also announced a plan to provide free tax advice to assist eligible veterans enrolled in the city's Extended Military Benefits Package. The service will be provided by H & R Block and Jackson Hewitt Tax Service at any of their branches in the metropolitan area.

State statute requires every locality to continue paying workers who perform ordinary National Guard and Reserve military service for up to 30 days a year. After Sept. 11, 2001, that period was extended to 60 days for employees called up in connection with the terrorist attacks.

Most of the approximately 1,720 city workers called up chose to remain on the city payroll while also receiving their military salaries to allow their families to continue to get the city's generous health benefits. The officers did so understanding that they would be required to repay the lesser of the two salaries upon returning from military service.

Fault City on Delay

But scores of the officers who served in 2002 have only recently begun receiving letters from DCAS asking for the money to be returned. City Councilmen Michael McMahon and Joseph P. Addabbo Jr. noted that delay and charged that the city's approach so far has been mismanaged. The Council passed a resolution to exclude the housing and food allowances when calculating the payments.

Ms. Hirst said the city is working to centralize oversight of the pay system for officers called to duty, noting several times that current procedures are "evolving." DCAS officials vowed to address the issues raised at the Council hearing before taking action against the officers who owe money.

Lieut. Jim Coan, who has served in Kuwait and Iraq, said he has received a $39,000 bill. "It's ludicrous because of the taxes and the pension money and the distribution of funds coming out of that," he asserted outside City Hall before the hearing. "It would probably take me 10 years and a major lifestyle adjustment to amass that kind of money. And the tax implications I don't even begin to understand."

Officer Coan, a 19-year NYPD veteran, said he expected to have to pay back roughly $28,000. "I'm disgusted with my city government, and the treatment of their veterans," he added. "They stand up on podiums and applaud themselves and their workers and the fight against terrorism, and then behind closed doors take food out of my children's mouths."