Elected Officials are far from sacrificing!

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.