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Pension Bills Costing Taxpayers Westchester Medical Center nearly went broke. Westchester County government hiked the sales, property, mortgage and vehicle taxes and saw its AAA credit rating drop for the first time in decades. Property tax rates in many school districts and municipalities jumped by double digits. There was plenty of blame to go around as Westchester's schools, governments and public institutions struggled to keep their budgets balanced over the last year: The hospital has suffered from a decade of financial difficulties, the county is contributing millions of dollars more to Medicaid and local governments and schools face soaring insurance premiums. School districts, governments and public institutions statewide will more than double their contributions to the pension system this year, to a total of $2.9 billion. The increase comes on top of an even steeper increase in 2003, when state Comptroller Alan Hevesi required public employers to increase their pension contributions from $357 million to nearly $1.3 billion to keep the fund afloat as its stock market investments fizzled. In Westchester, the numbers are equally daunting: At the medical center, the pension bill more than doubled this year, to $23.9 million, deepening a fiscal crisis that brought the hospital to within days of insolvency. Who Are We ? | About THISDAYOnLine.com | THISDAY People | Contact Us © Copyright 2000 Leaders & Company Limited

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