New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday vetoed a bill that would have sweetened pensions for thousands of active and retired specialized police officers across the state — just days after their union plastered billboards across New York attacking her record on crime.
The veto marked the fourth consecutive year Hochul has rejected the bill, which would allow state forest rangers, park police officers, environmental conservation officers and university police officers to retire with an annual pension worth half their salary after 20 years on the job, rather than the current 25 years.
But this year’s veto came at a contentious moment for the governor and a specialized police union. Less than 48 hours earlier, the Police Benevolent Association of New York State blasted out a press release touting its new billboards, which feature an image of Hochul and say, “HELP WANTED! Our streets are less safe today. New Governor needed.”
In a brief message explaining her veto, Hochul said the bill would have cost the state too much money — an estimated $66.7 million to boost benefits for past retirees, and another $6 million per year going forward.
“This bill has been vetoed four times over the past five years because this pension enhancement would impose substantial unbudgeted costs on the state,” she wrote.
Hochul, a Democrat, has spent recent years trying to bolster her image as a tough-on-crime governor. She has pushed to roll back New York’s bail reforms and expand intelligence sharing between state and federal law enforcement.
The Police Benevolent Association has been pushing the pension bill for several years, arguing that its members are simply pressing for the same retirement benefits offered to New York state troopers and most municipal police officers. The union represents about 1,100 active officers across the state, a relatively small number for a statewide union.
State lawmakers, many of whom are allied with labor unions, have overwhelmingly passed the bill five times in the last seven years. But every time, the sitting governor — Andrew Cuomo in 2019 and Hochul in 2021 and each year since — has vetoed the legislation, pointing to fiscal concerns.
The Police Benevolent Association did not mention the pending bill when it launched its anti-Hochul billboards in Albany, Buffalo and on Long Island earlier this week. And the governor didn’t mention the billboards in her veto message.
Instead, the union painted the advertisements as a broadside against the Democratic governor’s crime policies, casting doubt on state and federal data showing the crime rate has dropped across much of New York.
“While the governor pays lip service to public safety, her actions in supporting the brave officers who stand between danger and the public come up far short,” union president Jim McCartney said in a statement on the day the billboards launched.
By letting officers retire after 20 years instead of 25, the bill would allow them to boost the size of their pensions. Police officers get an additional 1.66% of their final average salary in their pension for each year they work beyond the minimum, up to a maximum of 32 years.
The state Legislature passed this year’s version of the pension bill in June. It was sponsored by Manhattan Sen. Robert Jackson and Queens Assemblymember Stacey Pheffer Amato, both Democrats.
Neither they nor the Police Benevolent Association immediately returned requests for comment on Friday.