ALBANY, N.Y., April 19 – School districts may reduce neither the level of health insurance coverage nor their contribution toward its cost for retirees unless the reduction applies equally to active employees, under legislation signed into law by Governor Eliot Spitzer.

The law, which was first implemented in 1994 and is subject to annual renewal, protects retirees by, in effect, making them part of the collective bargaining process.

The law does not, however, prevent school districts from taking cost-cutting measures, so long as these apply equally to active employees and retirees. There has been no evidence of harm befalling school districts over the past decade as the result of this requirement for fair treatment of their retirees, said Spitzer.

This law prevents the unilateral elimination or reduction of health insurance benefits for retired teachers and other school district retirees, said Senator Hugh T. Farley (R/C/I-Fulton) one of the bills sponsors, effectively tying changes in retiree coverage to changes negotiated with active employees.

Governmental employees [are focusing] disproportionately on retiree health insurance benefits simply because they can, i.e., because there is no statutory limitation on their actions, said Stanley Winter, president of the Retired Public Employees Association. Public retirees have no basis in law to be represented at the bargaining table. Furthermore, the New York State Court of Appeals had held that, in the absence of a contract to provide health insurance benefits to retirees, a municipality could unilaterally reduce benefits and premium support for retirees.

School districts are not required to provide health insurance benefits to their retirees if they dont already do so. Nor are school districts prohibited from changing the benefit or contribution structure of their health insurance program, Winter continued. This legislation simply prevents school districts from unilaterally reducing health insurance benefits or reducing their contribution toward health insurance costs of retired public employees unless the school board has implemented a similar change for a corresponding group of active employees. The experience of the past 13 years with the laws of 1994 demonstrates that such legislation has not been unduly burdensome or restrictive for school districts.

Health insurance coverage is a form of deferred compensation which retirees earned during years of public service, Winter explained. Continuation of that coverage is vital to the health and financial wellbeing of retirees on fixed incomes.