May 14, 2008
Shining the spotlight
Over the past few months, the genie has squeezed out of the bottle thanks to old fashioned reporting about private attorneys collecting public pensions, double-dipping public employees and the state Legislature's penchant for pandering to unions at taxpayer expense.
Aggressive investigations by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli are keeping the stories alive.
On Tuesday, Cuomo announced he was issuing subpoenas of 124 Long Island school districts to investigate the practice of school administrators retiring with pensions from one school district and then getting hired as an interim superintendent at another. According to Newsday:
The new round of subpoenas follows a Newsday
story Sunday...that at least 40 school administrators receive state pensions and salaries as interim school district employees. Some of the administrators were hired only days after retiring.
The double dipping of Long Island school superintendents didn't escape the attention of the Times Herald-Record.
In an editorial, it notes that the leaders Orange-Ulster BOCES says they can't find a new district superintendent at a $165,000 salary "so they might have to hide what they are doing to get around state regulations." After a scandal involving a BOCES district superintendent on Long Island years ago, the Legislature capped BOCES superintendents' salaries statewide at $165,000.
If the BOCES leaders do have to stick to the rule, somebody should watch closely and make sure that they don't try an end run by paying a high salary to someone with a different title in an effort to avoid the restriction....What it would be is lying, which is not something we should expect from people charged with the responsibility of providing both a good education and a good example.
Meanwhile, private attorneys who looked forward to counting collecting government pensions are striking back. An Albany attorney says he's preparing a class action suit to prevent DiNapoli from kicking any private attorneys out of the pension system. He doesn't name his potential clients, which leads one to speculate that the page-one Times Union story is attempt for him to solicit clients.
The stories, editorials and opinion columns about a pending legislation to safeguard costly health benefits of retired public employees is not making CSEA happy.
Its press release attacks the New York State Association of Counties and the Empire Center.
NYSAC has its own narrow agenda on this issue to pursue unrestricted unilateral action in this case regardless of who gets hurt. But the Empire Center, which is a front for corporate fat cats, is even more reprehensible in their manipulation of the facts.
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