Vetoed Last Year

The 9/11 bill still needs Governor Pataki's signature to become law. The Governor vetoed last year's version at the urging of Mayor Bloomberg, who said the legislation was riddled with loopholes and would cost up to $260 million a year.

This year's bill includes changes aimed at answering those objections, said Correction Captains' Association President Peter Meringolo, who coordinated the lobbying effort for the bill as the leader of the Public Employee Conference, a coalition of uniformed and civilian unions.

Under the bill, workers will be eligible for a tax-free pension worth 75 percent of their final salary if they can show that they developed lung disease, asthma, cancer, depression or certain other illnesses from exposure to the World Trade Center disaster. As before, workers would have to register within the next two years to claim benefits under the bill at a later date.

Who Would Be Covered

The bill would primarily benefit the thousands of police officers, firefighters, correction officers and sanitation workers who labored at the World Trade Center site, assisted at the city morgue, or sorted debris at the Fresh Kills landfill at any point during a one-year period following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Civilian state and city employees who contributed to the cleanup effort also are included.

The new bill shortens the list of illnesses covered by the legislation and also narrows the definition of who is covered by decreasing the geographic area in Lower Manhattan that would be considered part of the work zone, Mr. Meringolo said.

Boundaries

The bill's new definition of the "World Trade Center site" encompasses the southern tip of Manhattan up to Canal Street, as well as certain West Side piers that were used as temporary morgues and staging areas for ferrying debris to the Staten Island landfill. Last year's bill benefited any employee who worked "in the vicinity of" the Trade Center.

In a nod to one of the Mayor's specific objections, references to injuries of the back, knees and ankles have been removed from the bill and such injuries will no longer be considered as qualifying.

"We weren't looking to benefit somebody who tripped on a crack in the sidewalk," Mr. Meringolo explained. "We're responding to the possible future needs of people and their families. If people come down with certain diseases, they should be able to apply for some sort of compensation."

In a replay of last year, Mr. Bloomberg's legislative team refused to comment on the legislation before it was submitted for legislative approval, Mr. Meringolo charged. "After revising the bill, we left a copy with them, and they never got back to us," he said.

No More Sympathetic

Mr. Meringolo apparently needn't have bothered. "We haven't changed our position on the bill," a mayoral spokesman said last week.

A handful of other pension bills made it through the State Capitol before the Assembly adjourned June 23, a day after the State Senate, for a six-week summer break.

The unhappy end followed six months of acrimony between Mr. Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, which prevented final agreements on an overdue state budget and a court-ordered reform of the school finance system.

The State Senate is due to return Aug. 2, but both houses may need to come back sooner than that to meet the Court of Appeals' July 30 deadline for overhauling the method by which the state provides aid to the city's schools.

Key Bills Pending

Until then, the following bills are among the few awaiting Mr. Pataki's signature:

• Corrective legislation to grant appeal rights to Emergency Medical Service workers'when the Medical Board of the New York City Employees' Retirement System rejects their applications for line-of-duty disability pensions. The Court of Appeals ruled earlier in June that NYCERS had been correct when it narrowly interpreted an earlier state law to deny EMS workers a medical appeal.

• A package of three bills  that will grant EMS workers the same death benefits as firefighters. The bills, which cover different categories of in-service deaths, will allow the families of deceased EMS workers to receive their relative's final annual salary as a recurring benefit.

• A "25-and-out" retirement plan for Traffic Enforcement Agents at Assignment Level 4, who have not been included in previous 25year plans for city peace officers TEAs who sign up for the benefit must pay an additional 6 percent of their salary each year to fund it.

• A line-of-duty disability pension for Urban Park Rangers. The pension, set at 75 percent of final salary, covers Parks Enforcement Patrol employees who are accidentally injured in the performance of their duties.

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For the Record

The fourth annual FDNY Night at the Brooklyn Cyclones Stadium is being held July 9 at Keyspan Park in Coney Island, with the Mets' minor-league affiliate facing off against the Staten Island Yankees.

Tickets are $15 for grandstand seats and $10 for the bleachers, with the money above the normal ticket prices earmarked for the Uniformed Firefighters' Association Scholarship Fund.

There will be a pregame ceremony beginning at 6:30 p.m. that includes a fireboat water display that can be viewed from the seaside ballpark. FDNY family member Michelle Cleary will sing the national anthem, with the FDNY bagpipers participating along with the department's ceremonial unit.

The first pitch for the 7:30 ballgame will be thrown out by retired Fire Capt. John Vigiano, who lost two sons - one a cop, the other a firefighter - in the World Trade Center rescue efforts, along with UFA Fire Marshal Representative Ed Burke.

There will be a postgame fireworks display, and pre-and post-game parties in Peggy O'Neill's Restaurant in front of Keyspan Park.

For further information, call Fire Marshal Bob Cashman at (718) 9990740.

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Our warm congratulations to former Uniformed Firefighters' Association President Jimmy Boyle, who recently became a grandfather when his daughter, Jean, gave birth to a 7-lb 15-oz. baby girl, Valerie Joy Arnold.

The baby, mom and new dad, Clay Arnold, are doing fine up in Rochester, while Mr. Boyle and his wife, Barbara, are beaming back home in Nassau County