Oneida County board approves early retirement incentives
Story Created:
Sep 16, 2009 at 4:02 PM EST
Story Updated:
Sep 16, 2009 at 4:14 PM EST
UTICA, NY (WKTV) - Several hundred Oneida County employees will soon be offered an early retirement incentive worth at least $10,000.
The board of legislators approved the deal Wednesday.
The idea, submitted to the board by County Executive Anthony Picente, is to save the county money that is paid out in salaries and retirement benefits.
Nearly 300 county employees are eligible to receive the early retirement incentive, Picente said. The county executive says the more that take advantage of the program, the bigger the incentive.
According to the resolution passed Wednesday, if 50 or fewer take the incentive, a lump sum of $10,000 will be paid out to each person enrolled.
If more than 50, but less than 100 employees take the deal, the lump sum increases to $15,000 each.
Finally, if more than 100 take the incentive - which is the county executive's goal - than the lump sum will increase to $20,000.
"As we go up to 100, there is a larger payout, but then there is a larger savings," Picente said. "So that is why we tried to tier the number of what we paid out based on the number of people who took it...so it wouldn't be so much of a burden to the county."
The county executive said that if he reaches his goal of 100, the county could save millions in the next couple budgets.
"If we were to see 100 employees take the retirement, with the lump sum, one-time incentive, we could see a savings of $2 to $3 million over the next two years," Picente said.
Eligible county employees:
County employees who meet the state retirement system requirements and have worked ten straight years are eligible.
If employees want the incentive, they have to submit a letter by September 30, and can not back out after the deadline passes.
Picente said the retirement benefits are one of the big reasons for the incentive.
Of the five tiers to the New York State Retirement System, the most expensive tiers to Oneida County are tiers one, two and three. Picente said that is because those employees do not pay anything into their own retirement package.
The county executive said the plan is to wait and see how many employees take the incentive by the deadline, and then reduce the county workforce by half the number that take the retirement.
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