Fitzpatrick: Reform Pension Plans

Moments after being into the early hours of Wednesday morning,  went on the offensive. His target: pensions of political officials.

"If you fix Albany, the first thing you have to do is carve out and cap the pension for all elected officials and all political appointees," he said. "You can pass term limits, you can pass campaign finance reform and you can pass redistricting reform, you can do all three, they're the big three reform measures that people talk about, pass all three and as important as those issues are they will do absolutely nothing to change Albany. It's all about the pension. I call it the 'greatest scandal never exposed.'"

Fitzpatrick, formerly a 15-year member of the Smithtown Town Council who has held the position of assemblyman for the seventh district since 2002, said pension issues have allowed elected officials to become career politicians.

"The defined benefits system benefits one thing, longevity. How do you get that longevity? You get it by avoiding the tough issues, by not living up to the fiduciary responsibility each one of has as elected officials, and you do what's best for yourself not what's best for your state or your community. That's why we have the budget deficits, that's why we have structural deficit that continues to grow, that's why we have pension obligations that are unsustainable and that's why we are unable to balance our books and do the right thing."

A defined benefits pension plan allows the retired politicians to accrue monthly lifelong benefits.

The assemblyman said the defined benefits pension plan comes at the expense of the taxpayers.

"People are having difficulty meeting up with their family obligations whether its holding onto a job, paying their mortgage, paying their taxes, trying to put a few dollars into their retirement account," he said. "No more taxpayer funded pensions for the political class, that's how you begin to solve the problems we have up there."

Another issue of Fitzpatrick's concern is the reduction of government agencies. Come January, the assemblyman will have a new governor to work with on this issue, , something he said he is looking forward to doing.

"I look forward to the proposal by governor elect Cuomo to reduce the number of agencies and authorities by 20-percent," Fitzpatrick said. "That's a big step, it's a huge step. It wont be easy to achieve but it has to be achieved."