Under that "disability presumption benefit," illnesses such as heart attacks, hypertension and tuberculosis are presumed to be job-related, regardless of the worker's family medical history or lifestyle. Lawmakers gave state law enforcement officers, including state troopers, the benefit two years ago.
Last year the police unions finally prevailed. The Legislature passed the measure overwhelmingly, and Gov. Jeb Bush, who got strong support from the police unions in his bid for re-election, signed the disability bill effective July 1, 2002.
The benefits, of course, came with a price tag. And therein lies the rub for city and county officials, who had negotiated compensation packages with their local union chapters that didn't include the disability presumption.
The cities and counties, not the Legislature, now have to find money to pay for the higher pension payouts and increased workers' compensation insurance costs that the new benefit imposes. For state legislators, says Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle, passing the law was "like being able to write a check out of someone else's checkbook. It's not fair. The legislators give the police the benefit and get their support in return. The folks back home pay for it."
For the local governments, the additional cost amounts to a budget-buster that came in unexpectedly through the back door. And the Florida League of Cities, representing 29 municipalities, is suing to have the new law thrown out.
The suit puts the league in the uncomfortable position of challenging benefits for police officers in a post-Sept. 11 environment. But the issue, says Virginia Hall, Green Cove Springs' mayor, is with state legislators, not with the police and firefighters. "We support our police and firefighters 100%," she says. "We feel the law is an unfunded mandate. It's not right to expect small cities like ours to cover the costs."
Green Cove Springs, a town of 5,500 on the St. Johns River, has an 18-person police department and a citywide annual budget of $25 million. After the disability presumption bill became law last year, Green Cove Springs' workers' compensation premiums -- the bill to local taxpayers -- jumped 50% to $180,000 a year. "The new law was the reason," says Sue Heath, the city's chief finance officer.
In Florida there are about 40,000 city and county law enforcement officers. The cost of workers' comp premiums and disability expenses associated with expanding disability presumption coverage to them is estimated to be between $5.3 million and $6.2 million, according to a state study, but League of Cities officials believe the actual annual figure will be higher. Without a full year of loss experience "it's all purely speculative now," says Kraig Conn, the league's deputy general counsel.
Violations?
The cities are pressing ahead in court. The lawsuit challenges the bill on three principal points: The cities claim that the law violates a part of the state constitution that prohibits lawmakers from passing mandates without a source of funding; the cities contend the new law violates a state constitutional protection against the impairment of existing contracts, in this case the collective bargaining agreements between cities and police unions; and the suit alleges the law violates the state's "single subject" rule because it impacts retirement benefits as well as workers' comp coverage.
"We don't mind the state Legislature telling us to provide benefits," says Chip Morrison, general counsel for the League of Cities. "But not if they aren't going to fund it."
State Rep. Beverly Kilmer, R-Marianna, sponsored the bill in the House to bring parity to municipal police officers. "I couldn't look municipal law enforcement in my district in the eye," Kilmer says, "and say they're not as important as their state counterparts." Kilmer also disputes the dire fiscal warnings sounded by city leaders. "There's no evidence that it'll bankrupt the cities," she says.
A police union official agrees that the cities are exaggerating the financial impact and says the legal challenge is "insulting" to Florida's municipal law enforcement officers. "They're being hypocritical," says David Murrell, executive director of the 30,000-member Florida Police Benevolent Association. "On one hand they say 'we support our police' but then want to take away this benefit." Moreover, Murrell says he finds it interesting that the cities are suing to block the benefit for police but not for firefighters. "I think there's resentment that we won in the Legislature," he says.
Meanwhile, the benefits battle continues: Cities will support legislation this year that requires that disabilities claimed as job-related, such as hypertension or heart disease, as well as HIV, hepatitis or cancer, be proven by the weight of the evidence, and not a statutory presumption. "If a 250-pound cop who smokes cigarettes, doesn't exercise and has a family history of heart problems has a heart attack, all he needs to get in-the-line-of-duty disability coverage is a doctor to say law enforcement work is high stress," says Morrison. "Cities just can't overcome that."
Firefighters, meanwhile, plan to lobby for an expansion of the types of diseases covered to include certain cancers. Because of toxic fumes, "there's a much higher incidence of cancer among firefighters," says Bob Carver, president of the Florida Professional Firefighters Association.