Sunday, October 17, 2010

Lotsa double-dipping going on

From the NY Post:

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has numerous employees working under him who are pocketing both a state pension and a paycheck -- a dubious practice known as double dipping that pension-reform advocates fear is bankrupting the system, the Post has learned.

DiNapoli -- who has railed against the soaring costs of the pension system -- has more than a dozen double dippers, but could possibly have far more, according to a Post analysis of comptroller employees listed on SeeThroughNY.net, a database of public employees.

The Post initially discovered a whopping 50 possible double dippers, and asked the office to confirm whether or not they were in its employ.

After two weeks of repeated calls and e-mails from The Post, DiNapoli spokesman Dennis Tompkins said that the list wasn't accurate, and promised to provide an accurate accounting of the agency's double dippers. He never did.

In an e-mail, he defended the practice -- which is legal in special cases -- by saying that using retirees saves money, because the state doesn't have to pay health insurance and retirement contributions.

Critics charge that double dipping is bad for the $120 billion pension because those limited funds were intended for use only for retirees unable to work.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Eh, who gives a fuck. Shelly Silver's appointee will be unemployed soon, then some new corrupt shithead can take his place. How about eliminating guaranteed pensions and making state employees gamble with their own 401K like everyone else - and not take my tax money.

Anonymous said...

@anonymous - I hope Shelly Silver's appointee will be unemployed soon. I worked real hard - real hard - to bring down Melinda Katz last year - and Queens Crap was there on the front line from day 1.
Harry Wilson - who is running against DiNapoli - want to make pensions less of a killer for the rest of us. I know he's not a shithead and no one - not even the Democrats (except DiNapoli ) says he's corrupt, so I'll vote for him. I just want Shelly Silver to lose. That man is the root of all evil.