Posted on 09/24/2006 8:27:44 PM PDT by GinJax
When they were called up for military service in the wake of 9/11, hundreds of uniformed city workers in the Reserves faced the suspension of their city health and pension benefits. The city offered them an option: it would keep paying their salaries and continue their benefits, but when they returned they would have to repay the city their city salary or their military pay, whichever was less.
On its face, the offer made sense. And many reservists had only a few days to get their affairs together before shipping out — hardly enough time to consult accountants. Nearly all took the deal. As the war dragged on, more than 1,600 city employees, mostly police officers, signed up for the benefits program.
Now the bills from the city are coming due, for far more than many veterans imagined they would have to pay — as much as $200,000 — and often for more money than they ever received.
The city is demanding that the veterans repay their gross salaries, even though they never saw about a third of the money, which went for taxes and other deductions. The commissioner of administrative services, Martha K. Hirst, said veterans should be able to get back the difference between gross and take-home pay by amending their tax returns. But several tax accountants said the city had created an accounting quagmire.
David Gitel, a tax accountant in Manhattan, said that if the employees paid the money back over several years — which many will have to do — rather than in a lump sum, they could lose thousands of dollars in income-tax and social security payments.
“It’s an interesting experience,” Mr. Gitel said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Feds must step in and stop this!
Yup.
I don't think this will stand up in court. They cannot expect them to pay gross salaries back when the only money they received was the net.
"...repay the city their city salary or their military pay, whichever was less."
"...as much as $200,000."
For someone to earn $200,000 in military pay would take years.
This is for the people of New York. Texas, etc., have nothing to do with this.
"...when they returned they would have to repay the city their city salary or their military pay, whichever was less."
What happened to THIS part of the deal? (the whichever was less)
Their service was for the good of the Nation. Therefore, the heads of the Nation need to step in and resolve the problem if the state is unable to do so in a just manner.
Lest we forget (and I was a Reservist) the purpose of this program was to help the soldiers (not hurt them).
Transitioning to military service can be difficult if you have a family that is reliant on your health care coverage and other benefits while you are deployed.
It seems like the intent was to help out the soldiers by allowing a continuation of their existing benefits while they were deployed.
This article is kind of unclear on when and how they were supposed to repay the moneys but it is obvious the intent was to be helpful.
The 200,000 might have something to do with not having to pay taxes if you were deployed long enough.
I will file this one under "not enough information" before I get upset or angry about it.
1,600 city employees, mostly police officers."
So, most of them are legally armed in NYC?
Yep,,,Vets Screwed Again,,,What Else Is New ?,,,,
Started In 1946,,,,OLD NEWS.!
This Andy Newman, the guy that wrote this piece should be forced to pay his salary back to the Slimes and find another line of work. He definitely can't write or investigate.
I can't see how they are getting screwed. They were told they would have to pay back the smaller of the TWO salaries they were receiving (and tax-free too if they were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan). They didn't save it, admitted to spending "the windfall," and now some, a few, are hard-pressed to pay it back even when allowed to spread the payments back over several years. You get "screwed" when you don't get what is properly owed you, but trying to back out of a debt, made in good faith that you volunteered for to assure you would continue to receive your police-employee benefits while deployed, is in my opinion, not one of them.
I am very much pro-troop and on the basic facts, it looks like the city was trying to do the right thing. So "screwing the troops" might be a hasty call as I don't believe it was deliberate.
I hope this is resolved so that no troops loses a dime.
OK, the story says that they would return EITHER their city pay, OR their military pay, which ever was less.
How could ANY of them have been paid over $200,000 in MILITARY PAY?
I presume also that military pay is not taxed while they are in a war zone.
I do understand the complication of trying to figure out tax consequences, I presume that if you return pay you can file an amended tax return.
I think my employer has this same policy, they keep paying you but only the difference between your normal pay and the service pay. But they I think do it pretty much real-time so there isn't much adjustment needed.
I know. Hard to believe.
One of the only ways is that they cherry picked one or two individuals. Those being a General or such that was put on active duty for a couple of years.
Glad to see others have seen something funny here ...
It looks as if the City Workers have found yet another way that they want to double-dip the system ... City AND Military paychecks
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