ALBANY -- Embattled Brooklyn Democratic boss Vito Lopez and 10 other state pols will give new meaning to the words "retired in office" on Jan. 1 -- when they start new terms hours after cashing in fat pensions, The Post has learned.
The 11 double-dipping state lawmakers -- including former state Democratic Chairman Herman Farrell and former Bronx Democratic Chairman José Rivera -- are the latest to take advantage of a mind-boggling loophole that allows some elected officials to collect pension checks while still in office.
The list of lawmakers who filed their "retirement" papers with the state Comptroller's Office by the Dec. 1 deadline includes seven Republicans and four Democrats.
Lopez, 69, can expect to receive an estimated $88,000 pension annually on top of the $92,000 salary he draws as the Assembly's Housing Committee chairman.
The 12-term assemblyman, who is reportedly battling a cancer relapse, has also been dogged by criminal probes into the Brooklyn charity empire he founded.
Meanwhile, Farrell, 78, is eligible for a pension worth a projected $108,000 over his $113,500 salary as Assembly Ways & Means chairman -- by far the largest haul of the 11 who took advantage of the loophole.
"It's not right and it shouldn't be done," said Assemblyman Michael Fitzpatrick (R-L.I.), who has authored a bill to remove elected officials and appointees from the pension system. "It's double-dipping."
"People will continue to believe the worst about Albany when they read what these 10 people are doing," Fitzpatrick continued. "If they're my colleagues, shame on them."
To claim the plush benefit an official need only "retire" Dec. 31 and show up after the confetti falls New Year's Day to get sworn-in anew. The Legislature closed the loophole in 1995, but politicians elected to office before that date can still collect.
Two years ago, five Democrats claimed retirement under the legislative hiccup. Harsh critics of pension abuse, such as Assemblywoman Earlene Hooper (D-L.I.), where among those who cashed in this year.
"The costs of double-dipping to New Yorkers cannot be understated," Hooper said in a 2008 about a different sort of pension gaming. "We are holding hearings to make clear that it is no longer OK to ignore this widespread problem."
Now, she'll collect an estimated $89,300 pension in addition to her legislative salary of $104,500.
Fiscal experts rank the soaring retirement costs of public employees among the state's most pressing financial issues and Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo has vowed to rein in pension spending.
Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun (R-Orange) said her retirement would save taxpayers since she won't collect any more pension credits to further increase her payout beyond her expected $60,400 annual retirement.
"It's actually costing them less because if I retired in four, six years, my pension would have been higher," Calhoun said. "I actually will end up receiving less money from the State of New York. My pension is frozen."
By ROSS GOLDBERG, Special to the Sun | July 8, 2008
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The city has accused 87 retirees of stealing $1 million from its pension system, what may be the latest in a series of pension abuses that have provoked calls for action in Albany.
Over the course of seven audits, the city comptroller's office detailed how retirees worked for government agencies and consulting groups while improperly collecting on their pensions. The audits came a week after state legislators passed laws closing pension loopholes and enacting tougher penalties for abusers.
While the city comptroller, William Thompson Jr., only recently released the audits on what he called "double dipping" into city pay, the state comptroller has been dealing with a wave of publicized abuses this year, most notably involving attorneys hired by school districts who were compensated through the pension system.
"It's been a hot issue," a spokesman for the New York State comptroller's office, Dennis Tompkins, said. "Our biggest concern is protecting the integrity of the pension system, making sure people earning pension credits actually deserve them."
The $1 million in improper payments from the city were made in 2006, the last year for which information was available, according to the city comptroller's office. Nearly half of the 87 people accused were retired police officers, making them heavily overrepresented in audits that covered all five pension funds.
The executive director of the police pension system, Tony Garvey, explained that members of his fund were most likely to show up in audits because their unique investigative skills make them more useful to city agencies after they retire. The offices that hire them do not have to pay for their health insurance or pension benefits, Mr. Garvey noted, as those perks are already being provided.
"When we talk about 'double dippers,' it's essentially a misnomer," he said. "It's a actually a savings in city government. It's a wise way to bring people with advanced skill sets into an agency."
The police fund will investigate the retirees accused of cheating the system, but most of them probably received legal waivers that simply were not filed at the time of the audit, Mr. Garvey said.
The names of the accused retirees were not disclosed, but the reports identified 35 among them who are said to have illegally received disability benefits. The fire department fund was the only one identified as having no members implicated in abuse.
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
States are cracking down on a controversial practice that lets government workers collect pension benefits while continuing to work for a salary.
The practice — called "double dipping" — lets tens of thousands of state and local workers retire, collect pension benefits and then keep working, often at the same job.
"What was going on was absolutely ludicrous," says Kentucky state Rep. Mike Cherry, a Democrat. Kentucky's Legislature last month ended a policy that let workers retire, get rehired and start a second pension in addition to the first.
Double-dipping is legal in nearly every state under existing pension and hiring rules. It is especially common among educators, police officers and others who retire young after 20 to 30 years on the job.
Supporters of double-dipping say rehiring retirees is a cost-effective way to tap experience.
Olga Martin Steele, 60, earns $252,000 a year as interim chief executive of the Santa Clara Valley Water District in San Jose plus another $180,000 a year in pension benefits from 30-plus years of government service.
"The benefit of someone like me is I know the organization, the people, the community," she says. The water district saves money because, as a temporary employee, she doesn't get medical or other benefits.
States are limiting double-dipping in response to newspaper reports and audits. The St. Petersburg Times found that Florida has more than 8,000 double-dippers and 121 "triple-dippers" — workers enjoying two pensions and a salary. As the Florida Retirement System puts it, workers may "retire without terminating employment."
Double-dippers include elected officials, school superintendents, university presidents, police chiefs and other prominent public servants.
Legislators in Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts and elsewhere have introduced legislation to curb double-dipping. Elsewhere:
•New York. The Legislature limited double-dipping. The state last week ordered school districts to prove that rehiring retirees was needed and to post compensation data on the Internet.
•New Jersey. The Legislature limited pension benefits for part-time workers.
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Double dipper? What about triple dipper McCarthy? Top ten highest paid County employees made over $130,000 with overtime, now Acting Mayor and City Council "leader". Refuses to give up his Council seat. Then he has the brass to make political hay about returning a lousy City vehicle. They had to hire two new employees to answer the phone because he's never in. That cost more than the vehicle.
Gary McCarthy lacks in managerial and communication skills. He is arrogant and rude to his constituents. He clearly looks down on the taxpayers. Gary McCarthy uses his position as a bully pulpit. Gary McCarthy didn't even fair well on the side of a garbage truck. He is clueless which makes him even more appealing the the democop leaders since he will already come with his puppet strings. Basically what you have here is another Kosiur!! IMHO
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Posted by Sean Lahman • February 24, 2011 • 10:37 am
Two weeks ago, my colleague Joe Spector and I reported on thousands of state workers who were drawing both a pension and a salary. We found more than 2,100 state employees who were “double-dipping.”The story generated plenty of interest and a lot of feedback from readers.
One gentleman from Penfield wrote with this question: “why does the media almost always neglect to talk about school districts when it comes to offenses such as double dipping?”
It’s a fair question, and there are two answers. First, getting that information is a technically complex task. It’s easy to ask the Penfield school district for a list of employees and how much they earned last year. And it’s easy to ask the state for a list of school employees receiving pensions. But since those figures come from two different databases, connecting the dots between them can be a challenge.
You end up with a Robert Brown who currently works as a teacher and three retired teachers named Robert Brown drawing state pensions, and no way to definitively make a match.
For state workers, we were able to get a list of double dippers by asking the state to identify workers who were in both databases (pensions and payroll). Presumably, they were able to match folks based on SSN or some other unique identifier. We can’t do that with teachers, because the payroll data and pension data comes from three different sources.
Prompted by this reader’s inquiry, I looked at the 2010 payrolls and pensions for Penfield and didn’t find any obvious matches. A quick review of public records showed few if any matches for teachers and other school employees in Monroe County.
But don’t just take my word for it. Payroll information for government workers is available to the public. If you think there’s a name we’re missing, please email me and I’ll look into it.
Public employees are paid with taxpayers dollars. We feel that reporting this information is an important part of our first amendment responsibility to hold elected officials responsible for how they spend that money.
In the past year we’ve published: •Pay and overtime for Rochester city firefighters •Pay and overtime for Rochester city police •Pension data for the 335,000 retirees from New York agencies and local governments •Pay and expenses for state senators and assembly members •State workers who received the most overtime pay •School employees in New York state who earn more than $100,000
Last November, we launched a massive project to get detailed payroll information for each of the towns and villages in Monroe and Ontario counties. Reporter Meaghan McDermott has written about how challenging this has been, and in March we plan to publish the results — a database of everyone who’s worked for a town, village, city, or county in this area since 2005.
Gary McCarthy lacks in managerial and communication skills. He is arrogant and rude to his constituents. He clearly looks down on the taxpayers. Gary McCarthy uses his position as a bully pulpit. Gary McCarthy didn't even fair well on the side of a garbage truck. He is clueless which makes him even more appealing the the democop leaders since he will already come with his puppet strings. Basically what you have here is another Kosiur!! IMHO
He's training for another post election public "service" job. Kosiur wan't taken care of until after he lost- McCarthy's been living large for decades. On you. This proves how the DEMS really feel about first responders. No money for fire equipment, no money for school kids, no money for animal control but $3.3 MILLION for needless golf course improvements and $314,000 for the golf pro. Keep the DEM implosion going!
Logged
Double dipper? What about triple dipper McCarthy? Top ten highest paid County employees made over $130,000 with overtime, now Acting Mayor and City Council "leader". Refuses to give up his Council seat. Then he has the brass to make political hay about returning a lousy City vehicle. They had to hire two new employees to answer the phone because he's never in. That cost more than the vehicle. 
