Double Dipping

@Walt Handelsman, Newsday

Double dipping by public employees has become endemic. Tens of thousands of educators (higher ed and k12), military veterans, police and fire officers as well as municipal, state and federal bureaucrats practice the fine "art" of receiving compensation from multiple public sources simultaneously. It results in rising taxes, bloated payrolls and long-term debt

In Connecticut, lower tax revenues caused the Governor to consider ways to cut state payrolls. The incentive for employees to leave public service (heaven forbid anyone gets fired) was to offer them early retirement. This followed on the heels of a previous negotiation with public unions to lower the rate of their pay increases in return for a no-layoff guarantee. Nice situation, if you can get it.


In the meantime, the Hartford Courant is reporting that at least 20% of the July 'early retirees' have been rehired. This follows a similar re-hiring of retirees that occurred a few years ago. So it's not as if this was unexpected.

There are lots of level-headed solutions to this problem. But no one in power is listening. In part because many of them are also double dipping. The New York Times ran a story over the summer that detailed New York State lawmakers collecting pensions and full-time salaries for the same job. In Florida, it's estimated that thousands of public employees are double dipping, including more than 1000 Miami-Dade department of education employees and 225 elected officials.

Regardless of the supposed legality, it's unethical. It was never intended that people could retire at 50, collect a pension and then take another public job - which for many could lead to another pension. And just because others are doing it, doesn't make it right. The fact that these double dipping pension problems exist nationwide tells you that national groups (read: public unions) planned for this to happen. Now they're hoping the problem is so entrenched and that there's so much self-interest at work that no one will have the political will to drive reform.