Albany

Last year’s massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., had a big impact in New York, perhaps most notably with enactment of a tough new gun control law known as the SAFE Act.

But it also made it easier for retired cops to “double dip” — that is, to collect their full public pensions while working full-time as school guards, otherwise known as resource officers.

Quietly passed as part of the 2013-’14 state budget, the Legislature changed retirement rules in a way that would allow the state Education Commissioner to grant so-called 211 waivers that allow public sector retirees younger than 65 to avoid penalties they would otherwise incur if they earned more than $30,000 in a new post-retirement job.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many more retired cops will become school officers because of the change.

School officials say it should help security.

But critics say it’s another example of how public workers can stay on government payrolls long after they retire. Police are typically eligible to retire after 20 years at work, and many do so in their 40s.

“I think you’ll see more school resource officers in September largely because of Newtown, and I think you’ll see more retired officers because they are readily available,” said David Little, government affairs director for the state School Boards Association.

He and others in the education field supported the change, which they said would make it easier to find experienced officers.

Waivers have previously been available by other means in the Civil Service system, and they are not unheard-of among retired cops working in schools.

The Albany City School District, for example, has three retired police officers who work in security jobs. They earn between $41,000 and $54,000 after receiving waivers from the state, said school spokesman Ron Lesko.

But allowing the education commissioner to give waivers provides another avenue, and potentially speeds the process. Waivers are supposed to be requested after a school district has “undertaken an extensive and good-faith recruitment search for a certified and qualified candidate … and determined that there are no available non-retired persons qualified to perform the duties of such position,” according to civil service rules.

There is, however, ample evidence that some waivers have been granted with little scrutiny.

When he was state attorney general, Gov. Andrew Cuomo helped crack down on school superintendents who retired with six-figure pensions, received waivers and went back to their old jobs on as interim employees.

The Cuomo administration itself has granted a waiver to State Police Superintendent Joseph D’Amico, allowing him to keep his $85,000 pension while collecting his $136,000 salary.

Moreover, taxpayers and others point out that removing the penalty for those earning more than the $30,000 limit could cause upward pressure on salaries if the waivers become easier to obtain.

“It spreads out to where practically everybody gets one,” said Andrea Vecchio, a Long Island-based tax activist.

Her region, she said, has “lots of double-dipper (school) administrators” who collect both six-figure pensions and salaries.

E.J. McMahon, a senior fellow at the fiscally conservative Empire Center, notes that waivers can make it harder for the next generation of job-seekers.

“You give a school safety job to somebody who is a retired cop … (while) there could be a young person who wants to become a school safety officer,” he said.

McMahon believes the waivers help feed a cycle of taxpayer-funded paychecks. “It contributes to government employment as a self-perpetuating lifetime job,” he said.

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