Nassau panels advance longevity pay deal, LIPA tax settlement

Nassau legislative committees on Monday advanced two agreements: a $100 million deal to give about 8,000 county employees longevity pay and another allowing LIPA to settle property tax challenges over two National Grid-owned power stations.

Both agreements would need to pass the full, 19-member legislature on April 25. 

Lawmakers on the Rules and Finance committees unanimously approved the longevity agreement, which would settle a yearslong pay dispute between the county and the members of its five major public employee unions.

County Executive Bruce Blakeman and the presidents of the unions — Police Benevolent Association, Superior Officers Association, Detectives' Association Inc., Corrections Officers Benevolent Association and the Civil Service Employees Association — reached the agreement, which would provide retroactive longevity pay and restructure the extra pay for the future.

The deal was the result of several mediation meetings that began in earlier this year between attorneys for the Blakeman administration and the unions. The funding for the $100 million agreement would come from the 2021 year-end surplus.   

It immediately would cost about $43.8 million in retroactive payments and about $15 million annually in years 2022-25. The administration is asking to take at least $50 million from a special revenue fund created last year with excess sales tax revenue.

Longevity pay awards county employees annually for their length of service and varies based on the number of years and also the union of which the employee is a member. The extra pay, which could be thousands of dollars for an individual county employee, had not increased since the county imposed a wage freeze in 2011. 

Current and former county employees eligible for longevity payments between January 2018 and December 2021 would receive 50% of the difference between the full value of their longevity payment, as if it had never been frozen, and the 2011 value. Beginning Jan. 1, 2022, employees would get 72% of the full value and, starting January 2023, the longevity schedule will be capped at 32 years.

For example, for members of the PBA, SOA and DAI, employees would get an extra $1,950 for 6 years of service on top of their base pay. That payment would rise to $10,400 for 32 years of employment with the county. 

The Blakeman administration and union leaders also agreed that longevity payments would be incorporated into the next collective bargaining agreement. If the longevity pay agreement passes Nassau's full legislature, the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the county's control board, also would need to approve the plan.

In a separate agreement, the Rules and Finance committees also approved a tentative settlement with LIPA over the utility’s effort to lower taxes for power stations in Island Park and Glenwood Landing.

The vote was 4 to 3.

Blakeman and LIPA had reached the tentative settlement two weeks ago, Newsday has reported. The pact calls for LIPA to forgive potentially hundreds of millions in potential past tax refunds and to lower the tax LIPA pays on the stations by 46.5% over the next five years. The agreement can be extended for five years, depending on the status of the plant.

Former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato was a voice of opposition during the committee meeting, saying as co-counsel to the Village of Island Park that he objected to the settlement because it would “crucify the working middle-class community of Island Park where I grew up,” while taking issue with the fact that details of the pact weren’t released at the meeting.

“What the heck is the secret?” D’Amato said.

Blakeman told Newsday the settlement was “in the best interest of Nassau County as a whole."

With Mark Harrington

By Candice Ferrette

candice.ferrette@newsday.comcandiceferrette

Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.