Area legislators are promising swift and effective action on several bills that have been filed to reform the way agencies like the Essex Regional Retirement Board operate.
But just as important to restoring voter confidence in the public pension system is ending the practice of enhancing individual benefits by legislative fiat. A 2006 Pioneer Institute report was sharply critical of this practice, noting that "loopholes and special legislation targeting specific employees or classes of employees added at least $3 billion to our unfunded pension liability."
Here's one to watch: According to a story last week in The Daily Item of Lynn, that city's retirement board has given an injured police officer (he was involved in a collision with another cruiser in July 2008) two months to seek special legislation granting him a pension equal to 100 percent of his $64,000 annual salary.
Seriously injured in that crash, the nine-year veteran has been deemed unfit for duty after a long recovery. His involuntary retirement would reap him a lifetime, non-taxable pension amounting to 72 percent of his current pay; but he and the police union are seeking special legislation granting him the equivalent of full pay.
However sympathetic city councilors (who must first approve the request) and legislators may feel toward the officer, the fact is that the pension to which he is presently entitled is a generous one. Furthermore, it's the one he and others in the profession sign up for when they take the oath. There's always a case that can be made for giving an individual public employee, particularly one who is involved in public safety, more money than he or she might otherwise be entitled to receive. But the current benefit structure was designed to adequately compensate those first responders injured in the line of duty — and is barely affordable right now.
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