Perry claimed retirement to collect extra state benefits on top of salary

By CHRISTY HOPPE and TERRENCE STUTZ
Austin Bureau of Dallas Morning News: 16 December 2011

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry claimed his retirement benefit from the state last January and has padded his salary with an additional $92,000 in taxpayer funds, financial disclosures filed in the presidential race show.

Under state law, Perry, 61, is eligible for retirement through his 25 years in public office coupled with his five years of military service. The supplemental pay boosted his state-paid gross income to $242,000 annually.

He was able to retire and continue in office through a quirk in state law provided for statewide elected officials. And while the double-dip benefit is available for other state employees, Perry has signed laws as governor that make it more difficult for others, especially teachers, to take advantage.

The revelation Friday immediately provoked rebukes from Democrats and teacher groups.

Texas Democratic Party spokesman Anthony Gutierrez pointed out that Perry claimed the benefit as the Legislature was slashing state spending to resolve a $23 billion shortfall. The brunt of the cuts was to public education, and school districts have laid off thousands of teachers.

“Somehow this Republican budget doesn’t have room to pay teachers, but they can give Rick Perry a $100,000 pay raise,” Gutierrez said. “If Perry wants retirement benefits, he should do us all a favor and actually retire.”

Perry was asked about the retirement benefits while campaigning in Iowa, where he has made cutting congressional pay part of his presidential agenda. He defended the “double-dipping,” of drawing full retirement and a full state salary as a common-sense decision that lies within state rules that have “been in place for decades.”

“As you reach that age you become eligible for it, so I don’t find that to be, you know, out of the ordinary,” Perry told ABC News. “It’d be rather foolish to not access what you’ve earned.”

Communications director Ray Sullivan said that the decision, first reported Friday by the Texas Tribune, was part of “his standard financial planning,” and that “the annuity is consistent with Texas state law and Employee Retirement System rules.”

Sullivan pointed out that the governor still has 6.5 percent of his $150,000 salary withheld to pay into the retirement system.

A recent study by Bloomberg News of states that allow employees to draw full retirement benefits while earning a full salary showed that at least 6,100 Texas employees are double-dipping at a cost of about $400 million in combined payments.

The costs have prompted new laws to make it harder for regular state employees and teachers to draw both a salary and a pension, all of which were signed by Perry.

In 2005, Perry signed a Teacher Retirement System bill that financially penalizes school districts that hire retired teachers receiving pension benefits. Basically, the law requires school districts — instead of the state — to pay pension and health care contributions for each retired teacher who is hired. That’s estimated to be about $5,100 a year.

School districts are also free to reduce the salaries of those teachers by that amount.

“The goal was to make it less attractive for school districts to hire retired teachers — and it has certainly worked,” said Ted Molina Raab of the Texas American Federation of Teachers, noting that school districts are hiring fewer retirees and many teachers are waiting longer to retire.

Clay Robison of the Texas State Teachers Association said the 2005 law and another law passed this year make it far more difficult for teachers to double-dip.

“We have a governor who is using government to stuff his pockets while demanding that everyone else make sacrifices,” Robison said.

This year, Perry signed another bill that will require teachers who retire to sit out for a year before they can return full time to the classroom, or else surrender their retirement checks. The restriction applies only to teachers who retire this year or in future years.

In addition, two years ago the governor signed another law that requires any retired state employee — not just teachers — to leave state work for 90 days before becoming eligible for rehire.

The law also requires the state agency hiring a retired employee to pay a monthly financial surcharge to the state’s Employee Retirement System. The restrictions apply only if the retiree returns in the same employee class.

The governor meets that exception because he is receiving his pension as a retired state employee. State elected officials are a different class of employee in the retirement system, and he continues to pay into the system as an elected official.

Before his decade as governor, Perry served six years in the state House, eight more as agriculture commissioner, and two as lieutenant governor.

“It certainly looks like he’s taking advantage of a legal loophole that allows him to truly double-dip, collecting a retirement check and paycheck from the state, while other state and school employees don’t have the same opportunity,” Raab said.

choppe@dallasnews.com;

tstutz@dallasnews.com

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/perry-watch/headlines/20111216-perry-claimed-retirement-to-collect-extra-state-benefits-on-top-of-salary.ece