Nancy Naples left her job as Erie County comptroller in 2005 with more than her small pension. After 12 years as the county’s top fiscal watchdog, Naples also received a lifetime of county health insurance for herself and her wealthy, energy-executive husband.
Anthony M. Masiello, now a successful lobbyist, ended his 35-year political career in 2006 after serving his third term as mayor of Buffalo. The city has bought his family health insurance ever since.
Carl J. Calabrese, a former deputy Erie County executive who is now a partner in the same lobbying firm as Masiello, also gets free government-financed health insurance. Calabrese began receiving it in 2007 from the Town of Tonawanda, where he spent 14 years as a councilman and town supervisor before moving on to County Hall.
And that’s only a short list of the high-profile elected leaders in Buffalo, Erie County and its suburbs getting government-financed health insurance for life at little, if any, cost.
Charles M. Swanick, the former Erie County Legislature chairman now running for the State Senate, gets it for free. So does Patrick M. Gallivan, the former Erie County sheriff who is now a state senator.
Mark G. Farrell will be paying 10 percent of premium costs when he retires as Amherst town justice at the end of the year. There are more. Many, many more. All entitled to a lifetime of health care, courtesy of the local government taxpayers who once employed them…..
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