Mayor Nutter Says It's Time to Drop DROP

The city can't afford the retirement plan any longer.

The original intention of the Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP) was to encourage long-time city employees to stay on the job past retirement. Instead, the program has cost Philadelphia a whopping $258 million since 1999.
 
"We cannot afford this program any long," Nutter said in a news conference.

Currently, the DROP allows employees eligible to retire to pick a retirement date four years down the road and amass pension payments while working and collecting their salaries, giving the city time to find their replacement.

Nutter says he will send the City Council a bill as soon as possible to "drop" the DROP program.

Union leaders representing city police and firefighters are prepared to fight, saying that the program should stay. But if the pension fund continues, Philadelphia taxpayers will be the ones paying into program -- essentially footing the bill, according to City Controller and pension board trustee Alan Butkovitz.

If DROP is abolished, employees who are already enrolled in the program will stay in, but new applicants would not be accepted,” reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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