A new article by the Associated Press highlights how some state lawmakers use pensions, through double-dipping and spiking, to bring home more personal bacon.
The AP’s Kimberlee Kruesi revealed last weekend that 18 of Idaho’s 105 state legislators double-dip. That is, 18 legislators earn a pension while also receiving state legislative pay and benefits, including health and dental insurance.
Kruesi wrote:
[T]he average monthly payment for the 18 lawmakers currently receiving a state pension is $1,630, or $19,560 a year. The highest payment is $4,300 per month, while the lowest pension payment is $280 per month.
Additionally, all lawmakers receive a $17,358 annual salary, travel reimbursements and a per diem when the Legislature is in session.
Kruesi also detailed how lawmakers wrote themselves a pension loophole to boost their retirement payments after long careers in the Capitol:
...a lawmaker who serves the exact same amount of time in the Statehouse for the same pay, but then gets appointed to a similarly high paying state position will receive $65,700 a year in pension. This is because the law exempts legislators from having their pensions be split up.
Read Kruesi’s full piece here.
IdahoReporter.com has written extensively about lawmakers’ pension perks. Most recently, IdahoReporter.com covered a citizens panel’s recommendation that lawmakers address the pension loophole. Read that story here.
