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The average annual FDNY pension is closing in on the $100,000 mark.
The Empire Center for New York State Policy, which yesterday posted the latest list of about 16,000 FDNY retirees, reported that preliminary figures for 2010 show that 1,267, or 8 percent, were collecting $100,000 or more annually.
The average pension for those who left the force in 2009 was a whopping $91,988.
For members of the department who retired last year, the average was $89,177 — but that’s calculated before adjustments that will likely drive the number to a new high.
The average benefit for everyone on the FDNY list — some retirees going back decades — was $55,235.
“They‘ve been going up every year,” said Empire spokesman Tim Hoefer. “A couple thousand one year, a few thousand another year.”
He noted that Fire Department pensions have jumped an average of $30,000 since 2001, while those at the NYPD during the same period went up by $14,000.
Officials attributed the sharp increase to a wave of firefighters who retired after 9/11 and qualified for disability pensions at three-quarters pay.
The Uniformed Firefighters Association reacted angrily to the findings, charging that top brass are the ones collecting the lion’s share of the pension checks, not rank-and-file UFA members.
“The Empire Center’s characterization of this as a firefighter pension list is false,” said UFA spokesman Tom Butler. “The FDNY pension system provides benefits for the rank of firefighter all the way to commissioner, and its average pension is highly skewed by Bloomberg-administration appointees and their friends.”
Butler said not one of the top 100 pensioners retired as a firefighter.
Without responding directly to the UFA, Al Hagan, who heads the fire officers’ union, defended the six-figure pensions of former chiefs, assistant chiefs and other high-ranking FDNY personnel.
He said former Chief of Department Frank Cruthers, who left after 43 years with a pension of $217,753 before adjustments, would have retired with millions had he been in private industry.
“The taxpayers got a bargain,” declared Hagan.
The FDNY pension fund is the only one that released its latest list of retirees to the Empire Center, which posted it online at SeeThroughNY.com.
The city’s other four pension funds are locked in a court battle trying to keep the names of their members secret.
The Post reported yesterday that the city’s pension bill could skyrocket beyond $8.4 billion next year if the actuary for the pension funds, Robert North Jr., reduces the assumed rate of return from 8 to 7 percent. His decision is expected by year’s end.
“We could be facing $1 billion of unexpected liability,” conceded Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway.