Double Dipping...as viewed by a retired judge and a retired educator

From John Curry, April 17, 2008
Subject: Double Dipping...as viewed by a retired judge and a retired educator
State legislators should change law on double dipping

BY HARRY E. KLIDE
Canton Repository, April 17, 2008

Those of us who have been privileged to retire from such occupations as teacher, police officer, firefighter, state or county officeholder or judge should be thankful for having fulfilled our dreams. We've had our day. We should step aside, deal with our aches and pains, draw our pensions and let the energized and young people fill our positions.

Unfortunately, too many of us who retire, for one reason or another, pursue the retire-rehire thing. We become part of a process that is known as double dipping. This practice has been around for a number of years and is legal. It enables politicians and civil servants to draw their pension while working in a similar full-time job.

OCCASIONALLY NECESSARY

In some circumstances, double dipping is acceptable and may even be necessary in rare instances if a position requires the unique experience and knowledge of a retiree and no one else is available. But double dipping has a negative effect, in that it denies the community new ideas and new blood.

When a superintendent of a school district resigns, gets his or her pension and then continues in his or her old job or becomes superintendent in another district, that means someone else was probably denied the opportunity to be a superintendent. In the present economic climate when so many teachers are being laid off, there is plenty of untapped talent among teachers and other educators who are looking for an opportunity to advance in their careers.

Furthermore, double dipping conveys the wrong impression to the community at a time when so many people are losing their jobs and homes and cannot support their families. They understandably believe that greed motivates double dippers.

As The Columbus Dispatch reported last September, elected officials in Ohio "were forbidden to double dip beginning in 1993. However, lawmakers say they unwittingly repealed the ban in 2000 amid changes to allow school districts to keep experienced educators who otherwise would have been lost to retirement."

Ohio law permits a state retirement system member to retire and subsequently be re-employed in a position that is covered by the same or another system, such as the Public Employees Retirement System, State Teachers Retirement System, School Employees Retirement System, Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund and State Highway Patrol Retirement System.

The Dispatch stated, "About 11,400 workers covered by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System are drawing pensions and have returned to other jobs covered by the system." In the days ahead, this number will increase.

I am happy to note that Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Moyer is not in favor of judges' retiring and returning to the bench. He has called the move "working the system."

REFORM BILLS INTRODUCED

A few elected officials in Columbus are attempting to close the loophole that allows double dipping. It is about time. The Dispatch noted that House Bill 270, introduced by Rep. Michelle Schneider, R-Madeira, "would suspend the pensions of elected officials and public employees who return to the same or similar jobs within six months."

HB 240, introduced by Rep. Bruce Goodwin, R-Defiance, provides that those who want to double dip would have their salary capped at about 60 percent of their former salary.

The time has come for taxpayers to protest and compel their state legislators to focus on the practice of double dipping.

Regardless of how I feel about it, I cannot find fault with someone who is double dipping because he or she is only doing what is allowable by law. I find fault with those who make this right under our legal system.

Failure to correct this problem undermines trust and confidence in government because it encourages the notion that public officials are talking advantage of the offices to which they were elected to enrich themselves at the taxpayers' expense.

Many states outlaw or restrict double dipping. Isn't it time our state legislators take bold action to resolve this important issue?

Harry E. Klide is a retired Stark County Common Pleas judge.

http://www.cantonrep.com

From John Curry, April 17, 2008

Note from John - Well, I just had to comment on this article...so I will share it with you since the Canton Rep thinks it's too wordy.
I do understand Mr. Klide's position re. double dipping. As he is retired under OPERS and under the final average salary retirement formula from OPERS he (if not of Medicare age) only faces an $80 monthly healthcare premium through OPERS for his and his spouse's health insurance. Had he retired under STRS (as an educator) his monthly healthcare premium (non-Medicare age retiree) would currently be $850 per month or, over eight times as much! This is due to the lack of healthcare planning by an STRS administration and an OEA dominated board which (in the late 90's and early 2000's)was busy with entitlement, mismanagement, and misspending at STRS rather than carefully planning ahead for their educators' future retirements as did those who managed OPERS. In fact, a former Canton area educator and former STRS Board member, Hazel Sidaway, was convicted of Ohio ethics violations due to her acceptance of gratuities while being an STRS Board member. She was not alone as four of her fellow board members and fellow OEA members (Jack Chapman, Eugene Norris, Michael Billirakis, and Deb Scott)also were convicted of Ohio ethics violations that arose out of their STRS leadership (or lack thereof). Had they and the OEA spent their board leadership time planning ahead for the retirements of their fellow Ohio educators the current crop of retired educators wouldn't now be facing highway robbery healthcare premium rates and would not be rehired and/or never retired in the first place.

This lack of planning is causing current educators to stay in the classroom until they reach Medicare age so as to prevent paying premiums like the ridiculous $850 a month that retired educators now face with an STRS retirement. This compounds the problem of finding jobs for newly graduated teaching candidates as there are no job openings in Ohio's schools thanks to educators not retiring and/or being rehired due to this obscene monthly healthcare premium.

The STRS administration and board has now been pretty well "cleaned up" thanks to being exposed by former Chillicothe Schools Superintendent Dr. Dennis Leone who now sits on the STRS board as a retiree representative and STRS reformer and the Canton Repository's investigative reporting of Paul Kostyu, who won an award for his investigatory reporting of Ohio STRS in a series of revealing articles. Even though the STRS has been reformed (for the most part), there are still educator retirees who face these ungodly monthly healthcare premiums due to this mismanagement and lack of planning...something that OPERS retirees don't face. I do understand that many retired superintendents are really not "hurting" with 88% of their final average salary coming in each month...they certainly are able to pay the stiff tariff of eight hundred fifty bucks monthly but, many educators who retired before the 88% final average salary came into being retired with the 66% formula. 88% of a superintendent's salary is a whole lot more than 66% of a classroom teacher's salary. This is why we see all those older educators still in the classroom and why some teachers double-dip. In their case, double dipping is a necessity.

John Curry
A retired educator and member of CORE (Concerned Ohio Retired Educators)

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