TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Bring State Pensions Back To Earth

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 26, 2008

Imagine collecting your full retirement pension while still earning your full paycheck from the same employer. To do that in the private sector, you'd probably have to retire and find a new job.

But if you're covered by the Florida Retirement System, as most government workers are in Florida, The St. Petersburg Times reports that a double salary is no fantasy.

If it were soaring investment returns that made such generosity possible, the situation would be less outrageous. But the fact is, taxpayers are covering the increased bounty.

The cost to the public of government pension benefits has soared 71 percent since the 2002-03 fiscal year. And the state now charges 9.85 percent of a regular employee's pay to keep the pension system funded. Five years ago, it was 5.76 percent.

Adding to the strain have been generous increases in salaries awarded by cities and counties as property values soared. Now that state and local governments are forced to make budget cuts, lawmakers need to rethink the merits of a pension system designed when government jobs were low-paying and many private employers offered pensions.

Now the private sector has virtually eliminated pensions for new employees and government pay is often higher than comparable jobs outside government.

It can be argued that a veteran employee has earned the pension, regardless of how much extra the retiree might earn on the side. But government workers are gaming the system, retiring for a month, then returning to the payroll at their regular salary. The money they're pulling down is shocking to workers in the private sector, where most people have neither pensions nor secure jobs.

The Times reports the Pasco County clerk makes $136,576 a year plus annual pension payments of $74,904. The president of Miami Dade College gets $328,860 a year in salary plus $175,572 in pension pay.

To fund an annuity that large for yourself, you'd have to win the lottery. If lawmakers don't get public-guaranteed benefits under control, the public needs to get new lawmakers.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT