Weekly Opinion Editorial
PUBLIC SERVICE HAS ITS BENEFITS!
by Steve Fair
Public
service is when a person uses their talents and skills to service the general
public. Generally those who are in
public service(elected official or government worker) are thought to sacrifice
income and status vs. what they could earn in the private sector to serve the
public, but is that accurate? It would
appear not.
According to a recent study by the
Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, Governor Mary Fallin will collect a
$176,000 annual pension when she leaves office in January. That is $30,000 more than she made as
governor. Former Attorney General and
Democrat candidate for Governor Drew Edmondson currently makes $149,000 in pension- more than he made
as AG. He can continue to draw that
amount in addition to his salary if he is elected governor. Both
will make substantially more in retirement than when they were in office. Not too many private sector jobs that have
that kind of pension.
Both Fallin and Edmondson benefit from a
bill ran in 1988 by the Democrat controlled legislature. It gave elected officials credit for their
non-elected service, which dramatically increased their pension benefits. Former State Auditor Clifton Scott became the
poster boy for inflated pension benefits.
Scott was able to count 20 years of non-elected service like elected,
and retire from an $83,000 salary to a $157,000 pension, even though he had not
contributed near that much into the system.
Because of situations like that, the various state pension plans in
Oklahoma were underfunded and in trouble financially. Under the leadership of the Republican
legislature and Rep. Randy McDaniel, candidate for State Treasurer in
particular, reforms were made that have the funds getting back to solvency. But more reforms are needed.
First, Oklahoma needs to close the defined
benefit pensions to all new state employees and go to a defined contribution
system. The private sector phased out the defined benefit systems years ago. Few Fortune 500 companies have a defined
benefit pension plan. The days of
working for a company for 40 years, getting the gold watch and a pension are
over. Companies have matching 401K plans
that allow employees the flexibility and control over their own retirement
funds. It allows them to move from
company to company and take their retirement with them. Government, like it does in everything else,
lags years behind the private sector in retirement plans.
The second reform that Oklahoma needs is
to close the ‘double dipping’ loophole. Currently
an Oklahoma state employee can retire from one agency, start collecting pension
benefits and then go to work for another agency after just a month and build a
retirement at that agency.
A workman is worthy of their hire and
elected officials and state employees should have a good retirement
system. But retirement benefits for
public employees and elected officials should not be infinitely better than
those they are supposedly serving and when that is the case, they shouldn’t
call themselves public servants. They
are the masters and taxpayers are the servants.
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