Bankrupt Rudy Giuliani regrets not having NYC pension

Metro

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by rich calder and john levin

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who filed for bankruptcy following a $148 million civil court judgment and faces a mountain of unpaid legal fees, says he didn’t have the safety net of a government pension. He said he now regrets it.

While most recent Big Apple mayors pocketed their pension checks after leaving office, Mr. Giuliani, 79, failed to apply for benefits. According to city payroll records It was obtained by the Empire Public Policy Center, a taxpayer watchdog group, and its public disclosure filing.

If he had received a pension, the two-term former mayor, who retired at the end of 2001, would have been eligible to receive about $26,000 a year after he turns 62.

This equates to approximately $442,000 that he may have collected over the past 17 years.

Asked why he didn’t apply for a pension, Giuliani told the Post: “I didn’t apply for a pension. I would like to receive it now. ”

Then he admitted, “I don’t know what to do.”

Mr. Giuliani should have planned his future better, former city leaders say, even though he seemed financially set for life at the end of his eight-year term as mayor. Ta.

“This may have seemed like a big change for someone like him, who left City Hall with a multimillion-dollar book deal, but I’m sure he wished it had happened.” [pension payments] Now is the time,” the source said. “In his situation, every penny helps.”

Mr. Giuliani also did not receive a federal pension during the six years he served as U.S. attorney in Manhattan and in other government jobs.

But as mayor, Giuliani made payments into the city’s deferred compensation plan, which he valued as an asset between $50,000 and $100,000. 2007 Disclosure Document It was filed during the failed 2008 presidential campaign.

According to the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, former Mayor Bill de Blasio receives a pension of $113,131 a year after 20 years in elected office, including as an elected official and City Council member.

Former Mayor and Manhattan Borough President David Dinkins collected $59,657 a year until his death in 2020, and former Mayor Ed Koch received $49,065 a year before his death in 2013.

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg chose not to receive a salary or a pension while serving as mayor from 2002 to 2013.

Giuliani, once hailed as “America’s Mayor,” is estimated to have $153 million in debt and up to $10 million in assets, according to filings in Manhattan federal court.

The move comes just days after he was ordered to pay $148 million in damages to two former Georgia election officials who were falsely accused by a former Donald Trump lawyer of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. , filed for bankruptcy on December 21st.

Mr. Giuliani’s lawyer, Joe Sibley, said the sentence was “the civil equivalent of the death penalty” and that if he does not win his appeal, “it will be the end of Mr. Giuliani.”