End double dipping in the public sector

By Greg R. LAWSON

Special to The Vindicator

In a Feb. 8 editorial, The Vindicator told the disheartening story of a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge who “retired” after winning his November election, securing his full government pension, and then proceeded to keep his seat — and salary — on the bench by being “rehired.” Under an opaque Ohio rule, the judge’s “double dipping” at the public trough is perfectly legal.

Of course, Ohio taxpayers are squarely on the hook for this absurd display of government largesse, and we at The Buckeye Institute have long opposed this practice and have called for its elimination.

Far too common

Regrettably, the judge’s case is one of many, as double dipping is far too common. In 2010, the Ohio Newspaper Organization discovered that more than 25 percent of school district superintendents engaged in the practice. The same report found that 32,000 state and local government employees collectively received more than $1 billion in pension payouts, with three-quarters of those payouts going to retirees from the State Teachers Retirement System. Again, these are public employees that, in many cases, are accessing their retirement benefits much sooner than their private-sector peers, and are then receiving full salaries in addition to their pensions and pension-backed health benefits.

Double dipping is a luxury that the private sector could never afford, or even fathom. And it is a luxury paid for by the hard-working taxpayers who are perhaps unaware that such opulence is commonplace and sanctioned in their school system or court of common pleas. But this is one public-sector gravy train that needs a whistle stop.

Many efforts have been made over the last decade to eliminate costly double dipping. Proposed solutions have included implementing a six-month waiting period before a retiree could be rehired, requiring any rehired “double dippers” to take a significant pay cut prior to returning to government work. Neither of these suggestions would have eliminated the problem, but they would have improved the status quo. A more effective solution likely would be to require public-sector workers to work until the more common private-sector retirement age of 65 or 67. But even the more limited proposals have so far failed to gain much traction in the General Assembly.

Red herring

Pension officials have made the implausible claim that double dipping does not harm the public pension systems — a claim that is a red herring inasmuch as the double-dippers are now collecting public dollars and benefits with both fists instead of one. In any event, the full harm done to the pension systems is all but impossible to know or calculate because Ohio’s pension payouts are shrouded in secrecy and not subject to the state’s sunshine laws.

The lack of transparency — further clouding the harm done by double- dipping employees — highlights yet another area in which public access to data is sorely needed in order to bolster the trust between public officials and their bosses — the taxpayers.

The Buckeye Institute joins with other advocates, such as Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel in the fight for public transparency and will continue to call to close the legal loopholes that allow double-dipping government pensioners to have their retirement cake and eat it too.

Greg R. Lawson is Statehouse Liaison and Policy Analyst with The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions.