Nice Work If You Can Get It

July 01, 2007

"After 40 years in state government service, Clifton Scott traded in a five-figure salary for a six-figure retirement check," Jaclyn Houghton of the CNHI News Service reported last month. "Now he draws both, collecting $146,000 a year in a government pension for a job where his final salary was $82,004, as well as $77,000 a year in his post-retirement job as secretary for the Commissioners of the Land Office ...

"Ray Don Jackson had careers as both a district attorney, with an ending annual salary of $93,980, and a judge. Now he draws pensions for both, making more than $113,117 a year in retirement pay while practicing law."

Ms. Houghton's news story, which quoted OCPA at length and appeared in the Norman Transcript and more than 15 other newspapers, indicated that some 74,000 former state employees collected more than $1.2 billion in state retirement checks last fiscal year.

"The cost of their retirements-and those promised to hundreds of thousands of current state employees-is becoming a burden that is too large to bear, according to some watchdog groups. The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs estimates the state is on the hook for more than $10 billion for retirements it does not have the money to pay. ? Some government watchdog groups fear keeping the status quo will leave taxpayers footing a growing bill for retirement benefits.

"'When you see the employee contribution (in pension formulas), who is the employer of the teachers and public employees? Taxpayers,'" said Steve Anderson, a private certified public accountant in Edmond and research fellow for the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. 'We, the taxpayers, are the ones paying for the ancient, dinosaur systems.'"

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