Retirement / Insurance / Dues Question

I have a question of current TPD officers concerning deductions. How much is the cost of the deductions for the average insurance group for a family? Is the insurance any good as far as co-pays and deductions? How much are the Union dues? What is the retirement deductions. I believe I saw some comparisons that Tampa paid the highest in retirement (11-14%).

The salary is very competitive for the area, I'm just curious what you actually get to keep.

Thanks for any help

Insurance is around $500 a month for a family plan.

The insurance is not good or bad....basically middle of the road. However, we have a city "wellness" center. If you go there its free and your basic medications are also free there. This is a great benefit.

I think the union due are just under $50 a month.

Pension is around 12%. However, we don't pay social security. We have one of if not the best pensions in America. Twenty and out with a possible 5 year DROP program.

Your comment that our salary is "very competitive" for the area is funny. We are the highest paid department in Florida and one of the best in America when you factor our pension, benefits and cost of living.

Now the bad. If you are a white male your have a tough road to even get hired. Once hired it is very hard to get promoted. ALL promotions first and foremost go to every available minority (based on race, gender or sexual preference). I have been here 9 years now and am stunned at this one fact. They will promote the very last name on the list and pass 50 white males to promote a black female. But considering you can make as much as a patrolman here as a senior manager in most other departments, its a good department.

Perhaps it is a matter of perspective about salary. This isn't a forum for tid or tat, and I don't care to anyways, but I will just say for a person in the area the salary is competitive.

Back when I started in LE, the department I worked for had a 89% pension, but they have since reduced it to 69% for new hires.

Outside in, I cannot comment on racial bias, but as far as hiring there are remedies for that. As far as promotions I guess you would have to speak to the union. That is why you spend 50 bucks.

TPD is not the highest paid in the state. HCSO has very similar pay. TPD is not on any radar screen for being a top agency. The pension deduction is outrageously high at 12.9%. Even with social security deductions plus the 3% for FRS, 9.2% is still lower than TPD. The promotional system has never been fair but that's not something unique to TPD. TPD morale is at an all-time low due to terrible mismanagement and absolutely no leadership. Don't forget your flag.



quote="one guys"]Insurance is around $500 a month for a family plan.

The insurance is not good or bad....basically middle of the road. However, we have a city "wellness" center. If you go there its free and your basic medications are also free there. This is a great benefit.

I think the union due are just under $50 a month.

Pension is around 12%. However, we don't pay social security. We have one of if not the best pensions in America. Twenty and out with a possible 5 year DROP program.

Your comment that our salary is "very competitive" for the area is funny. We are the highest paid department in Florida and one of the best in America when you factor our pension, benefits and cost of living.

Now the bad. If you are a white male your have a tough road to even get hired. Once hired it is very hard to get promoted. ALL promotions first and foremost go to every available minority (based on race, gender or sexual preference). I have been here 9 years now and am stunned at this one fact. They will promote the very last name on the list and pass 50 white males to promote a black female. But considering you can make as much as a patrolman here as a senior manager in most other departments, its a good department.[/quote]

The Mayor is very pro public service and does well by us. Our pension is great and our pay very good. Morale is very low at this time for many reasons. Morale has been going down for the past 4-5 years. As bad as things are this is still the best dept in the area. Best of luck.

The Mayor is very pro public service and does well by us.

I keep hearing this. However, can you tell me ONE thing he has done for the "police" since getting in office? We have purchased 50 cars (out of 1000) in his 3 years in office. Our headquarters is being taken over by other city departments. He gave us nothing he didn't give the rest of the city. He played us like a fiddle by getting us in a 3 year contract so it goes past his reelection time. He violated the spirit of the DROP program by keeping the Chief past her time.....all because she and him didn't plan ahead for a replacement. He will lose ALL credibility if he keeps JB after his time is up. He does NOT come ride with the guys anymore. All the promises he made during his campaign to officers he failed to meet. He is no more 'Pro" police than he is "pro" waste water!

Family health insurance is about $270 per month, not the $500 previously stated. It may be higher than that for a smoker.

I'll save my comments about TPD's salary being "competitive." There are things about salary that aren't obvious on an agency's website or from a recruiter. One agency near us has a good starting salary but no step plan. Another agency had a "master" category, however the rank and associated money can be taken away at a whim.

I would assume that anyone semi-intelligent would do their homework before deciding where to apply. I would rather people not know what we really make, because if the citizens found out there would probably be pressure to cut down on raises.

TPD is an excellent department to work for. We are well paid and do pay a large amount into our pension. Even though our pension is one of the strongest in the state and maybe even the country, the legislature just lumps us in with other private public retirement funds in their bills so if they were to vote in something such as doing away with the Drop plan, we would lose it too due to the weaker funds. We geta lot of support from our staff and from our Mayor. The mayor often stops at calls for service even with a schedule as busy as his is. If you can get hired on at TPD, you will not regret it.

Losing DROP isn't necessarily correct. Unlike almost every other pension plan, we all have signed individual pension contracts. It would be extremely difficult to change the contract without the consent of both parties. DROP could be eliminated for new members, not for current members.

The good thing about the contract is that the city or state just can't change our pension because they feel like it. Everyone in FRS got hit with that 3% contribution and couldn't do a thing about it. If FRS starts losing money again the legislature will just make them pay even more. The contract also spells out how we pay. The city can't arbitrarily raise our rates because they want to, nor can the city borrow money from the fund. That got a lot of other pensions in trouble.

TPD is not the highest paid in the state. HCSO has very similar pay. TPD is not on any radar screen for being a top agency. The pension deduction is outrageously high at 12.9%. Even with social security deductions plus the 3% for FRS, 9.2% is still lower than TPD. The promotional system has never been fair but that's not something unique to TPD. TPD morale is at an all-time low due to terrible mismanagement and absolutely no leadership. Don't forget your flag.



quote="one guys"]Insurance is around $500 a month for a family plan.

The insurance is not good or bad....basically middle of the road. However, we have a city "wellness" center. If you go there its free and your basic medications are also free there. This is a great benefit.

I think the union due are just under $50 a month.

Pension is around 12%. However, we don't pay social security. We have one of if not the best pensions in America. Twenty and out with a possible 5 year DROP program.

Your comment that our salary is "very competitive" for the area is funny. We are the highest paid department in Florida and one of the best in America when you factor our pension, benefits and cost of living.

Now the bad. If you are a white male your have a tough road to even get hired. Once hired it is very hard to get promoted. ALL promotions first and foremost go to every available minority (based on race, gender or sexual preference). I have been here 9 years now and am stunned at this one fact. They will promote the very last name on the list and pass 50 white males to promote a black female. But considering you can make as much as a patrolman here as a senior manager in most other departments, its a good department.[/quote]


Yes the pension dues are high, but consider these facts.

We make 13% more per hour than HCSO, who is the 2nd best paid in the area. ( $32.80 vs 36.95)
We have a 20 year retirement plan, they have a 30 year retirement plan ( new hires).

So don't get discouraged by the pension dues. Look at the entire compensation package.

Other benefits such as you can cash out your comp at any time not just once a year. After 5 years, you start to get your bonus pay. Each year you get a safe driver (no crashes), you get a days pay and same for master shooter. Those get cashed out at the end of the year. You get a free floating holiday. The amount of details is unreal. 4 days on 4 days off. The list goes on and on with what you get here at Tampa PD. It's not perfect as no place is. But we are head and shoulders above the rest. When you retire even at MPO pay, you will walk away with more then any SO pension can give you. There is not another agency that can come close in this area when it comes to salary and benefits. You don't see TPD cops jumping ship to other places. And those who have which is a very small amount, just could not hack it here.