The Albany Times Union reports today that the Association of Chiefs of Police is unhappy about a “mandate relief” initiative included in the 2011 law for New York’s 2 percent tax cap. The legislation repealed a 34-year-old law that said local police chiefs’ salaries must be higher than lower-ranking officers.
“Now there is absolute no protection at all for their benefits,” John Grebert, executive director of the group, told the newspaper.
The association, which says savings from repealing the law are minimal, wants it reinstated, according to the Times Union. But the state Conference of Mayors said local officials should be the ones to set police chiefs’ salaries, not a state law.
Barbara VanEpps, deputy director of the conference, said police chiefs would get automatic raises under the state law when their officers got salary bumps. Chiefs typically do not receive overtime, so they often are out-earned by their officers.
“It takes away the power for locally elected officials to set their budgets as they see fit,” she told the newspaper.
