City Council members are looking to change the city charter to force officials to put aside cash for retired municipal workers’ huge health care bills.
The city will owe $92.5 billion to pay for health care for all its current and retired workers — but only has $2.4 billion in the bank for such costs, according to Councilman Dan Garodnick (D-Manhattan).
He proposed forcing the city to contribute each year to the Retiree Health Benefits Trust.
“We have got a rather big bill that is coming due and we can’t ignore it anymore,” he said.
Under the plan, the city would be required to contribute 5% of its retiree health care costs to the fund each year — which would have amounted to $105 million last year.
The fund was created in 2006, but officials have been free to deposit what they wish and withdraw the cash when they want to spend it.
The new rules would waive the required contribution only in years when city tax revenues shrink. And the city could not withdraw money from the fund except in years it has a deficit and to pay certain health care costs.
“This is anything but a paperwork issue. This is something which will affect average New Yorkers if we continue to make promises to people to pay for their health care and then don’t have the money to pay for it,” Garodnick said.
Mayor de Blasio opposed the proposal. A spokeswoman noted he had added money to the fund, and is working on cutting health care costs in talks with unions.
“We are confident in this responsible approach, and do not believe a charter amendment to dictate spending priorities is either necessary or appropriate,” said spokeswoman Marti Adams.
