2022 has concluded and even though the governorship has changed our Accidental Disability Retirement Bill, A6365/S8399 – Abbate/Robert Jackson, faced the same fate, VETOED. We have submitted this bill for seven years now and it has been vetoed every time. Although this is COBANC’s bill the other peace officer unions are on the bill and we have been in preliminary discussions on how to reintroduce the bill with a successful outcome. It seems that the bill gets lumped into other pension enhancement bills and as such is never reviewed as a stand-alone bill as we believe it should be. Although this bill would not help any past injured peace officers who could not return to the job, it would benefit those who get injured in the future. We will not rest until this bill gets signed and the injustice our injured peace officers live through is finally recognized.
The Public Employee Conference was held in December and the upcoming legislative agenda of the conference was discussed. For our members, there were two key committees formed to spearhead the legislation. Tier 6 Pension Reform which currently makes up one-third of our membership and is growing and the new gun legislation for Retired Peace Officers that Governor Hochul signed into law without thought or numbers to support her reckless actions. COBANC’s President Peter Piciulo was asked to participate in both committees.
In Unity,
COBANC