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(Reuters) – New York City workers who are hired in the future might be offered 401(k) thrift plans instead of traditional pension plans that guarantee a certain benefit upon retirement, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday.

The necessity of reducing the soaring pension costs for the city’s workers was a centerpiece of Bloomberg’s State of the City address on Wednesday, and he previously has focused on persuading the state to let the city create a less generous fifth tier of pension benefits for future hires.

“You know, you can negotiate with everybody. Maybe it comes out that way,” Bloomberg said on his weekly WOR radio show, when asked about offering 401(k) or thrift plans instead of traditional pensions.

With 401(k) plans, workers only collect their own contributions and those made by their employers — plus or minus any investment profits or losses. These kinds of newer retirement plans disappointed some workers whose stock investments slumped during the credit crunch.

In 2011, New York City’s pension costs will rise to $7 billion from $1.5 billion in 2001, Bloomberg said in his State of the City address.

“That means that this year, the average New York City tax filer will be paying $2,400 more to cover pension costs than they did back then,” he said. Had subway fares risen at the same clip, they would have climbed to $7.05 this year and $8.39 next year — a one-trip ride now costs $2.25.

New York City would need the state’s permission to negotiate any pension benefits — a fifth less costly tier or a thrift plan — with city workers, and Bloomberg has put this request high on his lobbying agenda.

Many states and cities around the nation are struggling to fully fund their pension funds. Despite big shortfalls, they are almost always bound — by contracts, statutes or their own constitutions — to honor their promises to retirees and current workers.

Bloomberg stressed he only wished to slice the costs of retirement plans for people who have yet to be hired.

“My loyalties are to the people who are already working for the city, and I will do everything I can to protect their benefits and their jobs,” Bloomberg said on his radio show.

“I have no obligation to those that we have not yet hired, so hiring the next class of people at different compensation levels with different benefits, you know, you don’t have to take the job. You don’t have to apply for it,” he added.

(Reporting by Joan Gralla; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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NEW YORK Dec 31 (Reuters) – Four insurance groups have agreed to pay the state of New York nearly $120 million because their companies collected too much in surcharges related to workers compensation, the state Attorney General’s office said on Friday.

Under the settlements, the ACE companies, part of the Swiss ACE Ltd (ACE.N) group, have agreed to pay $70 million. The Zurich companies, part of Zurich Financial Services AG (ZURN.VX), agreed to pay $37.5 million.

The Pennsylvania Manufacturers companies agreed to pay $5.9 million and the CNA companies, part of CNA Financial Corp (CNA.N), will pay $5.75 million, the Attorney General’s office said.

Among the 10 Ace insurers are Pacific Employers Insurance Co and ACE American Insurance Co. The nine Zurich insurers include Northern Insurance Co of New York and American Zurich Insurance Co. The 14 CNA companies include Buckeye Union Insurance Co and National Fire Insurance Co of Hartford

The three Pennsylvania Manufacturers insurers are Manufacturers Alliance Insurance Co., Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association Insurance Co and Pennsylvania Manufacturers Indemnity Co.

The Workers’ Compensation Board charges annual fees to workers’ compensation insurers, who cover the fees by charging policyholders a surcharge on premiums.

Beginning in 2000, the board used a different calculation than the one used to determine the surcharges to policyholders. As a result, some insurers including ACE, Zurich, Pennsylvania Manufacturers and CNA collected too much from 36 of their member insurance companies.

A change in the law in 2009 and 2010 allowed the state to recover the excess funds that the insurers had collected.

The companies fully cooperated with the investigation, the Attorney General office said.

“These four groups of insurance companies have done the responsible thing by agreeing to resolve their disputes with the State,” Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, slated to be sworn in as governor on Friday evening, said in a statement. “Other insurers who still retain excess funds should follow their lead or they will be brought to justice.”

Representatives of ACE and Pennsylvania Manufacturers were not available for comment. A spokesman for Zurich in an email confirmed the agreement. A CNA spokeswoman did not immediately return a phone call. (Reporting by Ilaina Jonas; Editing by Gary Hill)

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Times are tough all over, even at the historically high-tone FDNY, where the fire poles are coated with gold, and all hoses spray Veuve Clicquot. To cope with the grinding budget crunch, the department has announced that starting in July it will start charging drivers $490 to respond to a crash or car fire involving injuries, $415 for a car fire without injuries and $365 for a basic crash without injuries. These charges will apply to every driver involved in the incident. What’s next, charging fifty bucks to kiss the Dalmatian?

“We are in a tight budget situation,” FDNY spokesman Steve Ritea tells the Daily News. “We wanted to relieve pressure on the taxpayer and place it on those at fault and their insurance companies. If there’s an act of God, if a tree falls on your car, the Fire Department has discretion. The intent here is to go after the insurance of motorists who are at fault.” Of course, there is a slight chance that the insurance companies might catch on to this and pass these costs onto motorists. “If insurers were to start providing coverage for additional accident response services, including police and fire, the cost of auto insurance would be likely to increase,” predicts Loretta Worters of the Insurance Information Institute.

The FDNY’s new policy follows in the footsteps other municipalities across the country which are charging drivers for emergency assistance, and even charging homeowners when they put out fires. The FDNY spokesman says the department isn’t “currently” considering going that far. The city will also start charging private hospitals as much as $1 million a year for hospital ambulances dispatched by the city’s 911 system, the Journal reports. At a press conference yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg showed his willingness to play hardball with the hospitals, telling reporters, “They like these ambulances to pick up patients because that’s the way they fill the beds. If they don’t want to have the patients in their hospitals, they won’t get ’em.”

A spokesman for AAA called the calls the crash tax “short-sighted,” telling the Journal, “We have concerns that some motorists might be less likely to call police to crash scenes, allowing drunk drivers, uninsured drivers, drivers with suspended licenses, and others to go undetected.” But the best quote comes from Queens resident Homer J. Simpson Barret Ramnath, who declares, “That sucks. Accidents happen, and you can’t be held responsible.”

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — American Insurance Group Inc. and its insurance affiliates have agreed to pay more than $100 million in fines and other penalties to resolve claims the insurer violated workers compensation regulations.

New York-based AIG also agreed to pay about $46.5 million in additional taxes and assessments.

The proposed settlement negotiated between AIG and insurance regulators in eight states would close out a probe into allegations the insurance giant under-reported some $2.12 billion of workers compensation premiums, Pennsylvania insurance officials said Wednesday.

State regulators accused AIG of reporting the workers compensations premiums as general or commercial automobile liability premiums. The violations occurred over a period of time, primarily before 1996, regulators claimed.

“Accurate company financial data is an essential ingredient of proper insurance regulation,” said Robert Pratter, Pennsylvania’s acting insurance commissioner.

Under the terms of the settlement, AIG insurance companies will have to file restated financial statements by March 1 to reflect the reallocation of the $2.1 billion in premiums.

The company also must submit to periodic monitoring by the states for a 24-month period and agree to pay a fine of up to $150 million if it fails to meet the terms of a compliance plan.

In addition to Pennsylvania, state officials in Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York and Rhode Island participated in the probe.

But insurance regulators in all 50 states and the District of Columbia will split the $100 million in fines.

The deal must be adopted by at least 35 additional states by March 1.

A call to an AIG spokesman was not immediately returned late Thursday.

AIG became a household name in the U.S. after the recent financial crisis and received the largest government rescue of any financial company. Its lifelines from the Federal Reserve and Treasury were worth $182 billion.

It got into deep water after helping banks invest heavily in risky mortgage bonds by offering insurance-like protection against losses on those bonds. When the bonds lost value, AIG could not afford to pay the banks. The government covered the losses to prevent panic from spreading.

AIG’s chairman said recently the company will repay its bailouts and is developing a strategy for growth.

Its shares fell $1.43 to close Thursday at $54.33.