NYS Lacks Common Sense re: Pension Reform

Hi Everyone:

Lately I have been reading in the newspaper about retired New York State employees, that has me very po'd. Currently NYS is in dire financial straits. The problems with Wall Street are only part of the problem. The NYS legislature has always been a major part of why this state is so poorly run. It seems that being a NYS employee has more perks after you retire then when one was working for the state.

More and more state employees retire with their full pension and benefits and then are rehired as a NYS employee again. Some retired employees are rehired as police or fire commissioners or elected as a politician or a judge. This double dipping has got to stop ASAP. Somehow this double dipping is legit. I am not sure how that can be? It is great for the retired/rehired employee since they will make more money in a year with their full pension and new salary combined, then they ever did previously. This added cost of paying a pension to a working again NYS employee, is devastating to the state's pension fund. Since the fall of Wall Street, the NYS pension fund has lost billions and billions of dollars. Having double dippers just adds salt to the wound and increases the money necessary to fund the pension fund.

Someone in the NYS legislative branch must see this and hopefully, he/she or they, should write a bill asap. Then the bill should be enacted as law to stop this insanity. When you retire you can always work somewhere else other then for the state, if you are in need of extra income. The law should state that when you retire you are ineligible to work for the state while collecting the pension and benefits. The law should also have some kind of allowance for those retired employees who wish to return to work for the state or are elected to a political position or are requested to return to the state's employment. In that scenario, the retired/rehired employee should have their pensions stopped as well as the benefits that come with it. The new retired/rehired employee can then receive their new salary and the benefits that come with the position.

To me, a bill like that just makes common sense. Double dipping has got to stop!

Common sense rules and double dipping drools.

Til next week.