The New York Post reports:
More than 70 percent of firefighters who retired in the past five years did so on disabilities - hiking the cost of taxpayer-funded FDNY pensions to nearly $1 billion a year, a Post analysis shows.
At the same time, a rise in final-year overtime racked up by firefighters - even those retiring on disabilities - has boosted pension costs.
After working 20 years, firefighters can start collecting a pension of 50 percent of their final year's pay, or the average of their last three years - including overtime.The pension is exempt from city and state income tax, but not federal.
But those with disability retirements receive three-quarters of their final pay, completely tax-free.
The special class retires in style,real style:
The average FDNY pension is now $84,944, including a $12,000 annual payment the city negotiated with police and firefighter unions years ago to share stock-market profits.
You'd have to have a 401K account with over $2 Million getting 4% to get this kind of money.
