For three years, many city employees saw no increase in their contribution for their health insurance.

It was a great deal for employees – albeit one given at taxpayer expense. That is not, of course, the fault of city police officers, firefighters and retirees. The blame falls on former Mayor Eddie Sundquist for not increasing those premiums as part of his budget proposals and the City Council for not catching the fact that premiums weren’t increasing on a yearly basis. Any worker from any walk of life isn’t going to kick that gift horse in the mouth.

The status quo is not fair to taxpayers – especially those on fixed incomes who have seen their personal health insurance premiums increase incrementally each of the past three years and now are being told some city employees can enter a fourth year with no increase in their premiums. We understand a 22% increase in health insurance premiums is a shock to police officers and firefighters. Such a one-year increase would anger those working in the private sector and looking for an appeals process if one was available to them.

The problem is this – how do you make up for a three year mistake in a way that is fair for taxpayers on one side and the affected city employees on the other side. There are two parties that need to be helped, and we’re afraid a recent court decision to send the matter to arbitration is going to tilt the table unfairly toward city employees.

After all, the city’s record in arbitration isn’t good. The tables in a Public Employee Relations Board proceeding are tipped toward the side of the unions when it comes to financial matters – and what happened with health insurance premiums over the past three years is purely a financial matter.

In our opinion, the best thing the city could have done is arrive at a settlement that does not include the Public Employees Relations Board. It doesn’t matter that the new premiums meet the 23% employee contribution included in the city’s contracts with its unions, a PERB panel is unlikely to keep the 22% premium increase that would fully fund the employee’s contributions to their health insurance plans. That’s the way of the world in New York state when PERB gets involved.

The best taxpayers can hope for at this point is a phased-in premium increase that makes the city whole over a period of years. A phased increase is better than no increase if you’re the city, and a phased increase to the full premium payment is a better deal for police officers, firefighters and retirees than the full 22% increase proposed initially by the city.

One thing is certain – PERB won’t be making sure taxpayers get any relief.