Change the retire-rehire pay formula

First an admission: Hell will freeze over before the obscene public pension system in Ohio undergoes any type of significant overhaul to make it more palatable to private-sector workers. Indeed, there’s such arrogance on the part of public employees that they shamelessly shroud the system in secrecy. As was explained in this space a year ago, the law permits only two pieces of information to be shared with the taxpayers who contribute to public employees’ pension plans: whether an employee is retired and the worker’s salary at the time of retirement.

But that isn’t the only way they get to rub our noses in their pension system.

Earlier this month, we were witness to one of its more egregious aspects when details of Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge R. Scott Krichbaum’s employment plans were made public by Vindicator reporters Peter Milliken and Joe Gorman.

Bottom line: Krichbaum retired on Feb. 7 after serving on the bench since 1991 and then was “rehired” on Feb. 9 for another six-year term at his full annual salary of $121,350. Oh, and Krichbaum, a Republican, is also pulling in about $80,000 a year in his PERS retirement benefit.

Election victory

For clarification, it should be pointed out that his “rehiring” came about after he won re-election in last November’s general election.

State law required him to notify the board of elections 90 days prior to the May primary in 2014 that he would be retiring at the end of his term. That letter is on file at the election board’s offices.

But, this column isn’t about Judge Krichbaum; it is a commentary on how out-of-touch the public sector has become with private sector reality.

Nowhere other than in government (used here generically) is the pension system so generous that even a mediocre performance on the job (and there’s a lot of that) brings huge rewards.

Three years ago, then-state Rep. Rex Damschroder, R-Fremont, offered this observation to The Daily Standard newspaper of Celina about the practice of retire-rehire (double-dipping, in everyday parlance):

“Nobody does this in the private sector because businesses can’t afford it. Well, the public sector can’t either.”

Damschroder had introduced House Bill 388, aimed at prohibiting all public employees from collecting retirement benefits while still on the public payroll.

“I don’t want to condemn anybody who’s taking advantage of the law,” he said of the existing practice that is permitted by statute. “I blame legislators for letting it go on this long.”

Why would Damschroder have thought that state legislators who benefit from the lucrative public pension system would rush to make changes to end the double-dipping? Altruism and public employment mix as well as oil and water.

Since House Bill 388’s inauspicious demise, there has been no other serious effort in the Ohio General Assembly to end the obscenity that is retire-rehire.

Why obscene? Because not only are the legions of public workers pocketing sums of money that most private-sector workers can only dream about, but the reason they give for wanting to stay on the job engenders the same reaction as really bad pornography:

We just love serving the public, being ever attentive to taxpayers’ needs, doing God’s work.

Who are we to question such loyalty, such dedication, such commitment to service?

Ask anyone on the public payroll about the money they pocket and the pension system that will reward them for the rest of their lives, and this is what you’ll hear:

The money is nice, but that isn’t what drives me. I love to serve my fellow man — and woman.

Test of sincerity

We need to give these hard-working, dedicated public employees a chance to prove their sincerity.

We, the private-sector taxpayers of the state of Ohio, should launch a campaign to persuade (force?) the General Assembly to prohibit someone who retires and then is rehired from earning more than what he or she was receiving prior to retirement.

So, in the case of Judge Kirchbaum, he would only get $41,350 for serving on the bench — in addition to his $80,000 pension.

Social Security places a cap on the amount of money a recipient can earn.

Public employees need our help to stop them from the sin of gluttony.