Greenburgh officials weigh capping health-care buyout at $22k while Feiner wants to end buyout for elected officials

David McKay Wilson | Hudson Valley Digger | 5/15/26

Just days after the Hudson Valley Digger uncovered the supersized health-insurance buyouts for Greenburgh elected officials and municipal employees, a tepid reform plan emerged from the Greenburgh town attorney’s office.

Details of the lucrative buyout plan brought howls of protests from Greenburgh taxpayers and a circling of the wagons by the town’s officials, with the exclusion of embattled town Supervisor Paul Feiner, who wants to ban the buyout for his fellow Town Board members.

The plan would cap the benefit at close to $22,000 for employees who waive town family health insurance, and almost $10,000 for individuals. One bright light in the reform would uncouple the buyout from its current structure, which pegs the buyout at 50% of the town’s annual health insurance premium....

Among the 120 town employees who took the buyout in 2025, there were 15 in part-time job titles, according to town records obtained under the Freedom of Information Law. On May 6, I emailed Taglia, asking if she could explain how these part-time employees qualified for health-care benefits, and thus, the lucrative buyout. I sent along my spreadsheet.

“It appears that parttime Greenburgh employees get health insurance,” I said in my email. “Can you help clarify?”

Nine days later she has yet to reply....

McGoey said he would address the town’s $1.8-million buyout program with an in-depth review of the issue.

“As supervisor, I would be committed to bringing the buyout down to a more reasonable and sustainable level,” he said in an emailed statement. “This will require fiscal analysis, a review of the Town’s compensation packages, and the work of negotiating in good faith with our partners in labor.”

McGoey noted that the Feiner, during his three decades as town supervisor, has negotiated contracts with town municipal employee unions that have enshrined the benefit in collective bargaining agreements.

“After all the labor contracts he negotiated in the last 34 years, Supervisor Feiner cannot be shocked by the financial consequences of his own decisions,” said McGoey. “Greenburgh taxpayers are now being forced to absorb a $1.8 million healthcare payout because Mr. Feiner thought a 50% buyout with no dollar cap was a good idea—and that buyout is up from 40% after he renegotiated it higher about eight years ago. I wish this could be fixed with something as simple as his new proposal, but in reality it’s just a gimmick to create the appearance of a solution.”

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