A hell-bent Nutter plans to veto drop

Mayor Nutter won't give up his quest to drop DROP.

Nutter, who has sought to eliminate the controversial lump-sum retirement perk, yesterday announced that he will veto City Council legislation that would preserve DROP at a lower price tag.

"Whatever the cost might be, we simply can't afford it," said Nutter, noting that Council's consultant said that the revised plan would still have a cost. "I think the public has said they want the program to go away."

Just what impact Nutter's move will have was unclear.

The legislation to spare the Deferred Retirement Option Plan was passed by Council last week, 14-3, meaning that Council easily has the 12 votes necessary to override a veto. Because of Council rules, that vote couldn't come until Council's next meeting on Sept. 8. If members chose not to override, the original version of DROP would remain in place.

Council's bill would delay entry into the program for nonuniform workers and would lower the interest rate for all future participants. Council's consultant predicted that the changes would carry a one-time cost of $15 million to $20 million.

Nutter yesterday again called on Council to pass his legislation to end DROP.

Council President Anna Verna criticized Nutter, noting that for at least the next three months, city workers will still be able to enroll in the higher-cost version.

"I simply don't understand why the mayor would have vetoed the bill that saves the city a considerable amount of money," said Verna, a DROP enrollee leaving office this year.

Nutter said that all DROP cost estimates are questionable.

DROP allows city workers to set a retirement date up to four years in the future, at which point their pension benefit is frozen and they start accruing payments in an interest-bearing account while on the payroll. When the employees retire, they collect a lump sum and start receiving pension payments.

DROP has drawn public ire because elected officials have enrolled - including some who signed up, ran for re-election and "retired" for a day to collect a payout before returning to serve. Seven Council members are current or past DROP enrollees. Five chose not to run again, and Councilman Frank Rizzo lost his re-election bid, leaving Councilwoman Marian Tasco as the only one planning to take DROP and return in 2012.

Cost estimates of DROP vary. A Boston College study commissioned by Nutter reported last year that DROP had cost the city $258 million since 1999. A later review by Council's consultant put the cost at $100 million.

Nutter is expected to push again to kill DROP next year, when there will be at least six new Council members. Asked yesterday about the next session, he said it was a long way off.

"What I do know is that many of the folks that just won the Democratic primary expressed views that were not in support of the program," said Nutter.

Nutter did not say yesterday whether he would veto the paid-sick-leave bill passed last week. Given that it was approved, 9-8, odds would be good that his veto could be sustained.