Back in April, as New Jersey legislators were getting ready to begin considering pension reform legislation, news broke that a handful of Assembly and Senate members as well as other elected officials in the state were taking advantage of loopholes in the state's pension system that allowed them to collect retirement benefits and a salary simultaneously. The story was evidence to some that one reason legislators have proposed big benefits packages to public workers over the years is that legislators themselves often benefit from these packages. Serve a few terms in the state legislature, or better yet, get elected mayor of your town first and then serve a few terms in the legislature and you could qualify for rich benefits.
Newspapers are wising up to the problem. The Providence Journal recently discovered that more than half of the members of Rhode Island's legislature have a stake in the upcoming debate on pension reform there because they have public sector pensions or credits toward a future pension. Some of these legislators have used their years of service to take full advantage of the variety of retirement benefits available to public workers. Rep. Rene Menard, a legislator since 1988, already collects "$627 a week in disability payments and $825 a month in cost-of-living
adjustments that he gets from Woonsocket as a retired firefighter," and will qualify for an additional $400 a month pension from credits earned as a legislator, the newspaper reported.
USA Today now estimates this has become a national problem. In a comprehensive survey of the 40 states that provide pensions for legislators, the paper finds widespread efforts by elected officials to inflate their own pensions. Some states add per-diem allowances and expense reimbursements to salaries used to calculate a legislator's pension when he retires. In Kansas, for instance, legislators are allowed to add up to $78,000 in expenses to their part-time salary of about $8,000 a year, which can increase their pension by up to 10-fold. Other states allow legislators to double-dip by retiring once they've earned sufficient credits in the pension system but continuing to serve. In New York this year, 11 legislators 'retired' but kept serving. One, Herman "Denny" Farrell, is collecting a $81,619 pension in addition to his $113,500 salary. Sweet.
The widespread abuse by elected officials is yet another challenge to reforming our pension systems, and yet another burden on taxpayers.
USA Today now estimates this has become a national problem. In a comprehensive survey of the 40 states that provide pensions for legislators, the paper finds widespread efforts by elected officials to inflate their own pensions. Some states add per-diem allowances and expense reimbursements to salaries used to calculate a legislator's pension when he retires. In Kansas, for instance, legislators are allowed to add up to $78,000 in expenses to their part-time salary of about $8,000 a year, which can increase their pension by up to 10-fold. Other states allow legislators to double-dip by retiring once they've earned sufficient credits in the pension system but continuing to serve. In New York this year, 11 legislators 'retired' but kept serving. One, Herman "Denny" Farrell, is collecting a $81,619 pension in addition to his $113,500 salary. Sweet.
The widespread abuse by elected officials is yet another challenge to reforming our pension systems, and yet another burden on taxpayers.
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