Posted on 12/30/2011 6:07:08 AM PST by DBCJR
Philadelphia is known as the city of brotherly love and, apparently, paying out massive pensions to public employees who will continue working for the city.
Marion B. Tasco, who has been described as being “politically savvy,” will retire from her sixth term as councilwoman, collect $478,057, and then be sworn in on Monday to serve her seventh term, Catherine Lucy and Chris Brennan of the Philadelphia Daily News.
How does she get away with this?
Tasco, along with many of her fellow Council members, is enrolled in Philadelphia’s Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP). DROP allows city workers to collect salary and build up pension money during the last four years of their employment, writes Aaron Kase of Philadelphia Weekly.
Naturally, when DROP was originally introduced, it was touted as being “revenue neutral.” It’s been anything but that. SInce its introduction, Philadelphia’s DROP program has cost the city $258 million in extra pension costs over a decade, according to a 2010 Boston College study.
Philadelphia’s Mayor Nutter has tried on numerous occasions to eliminate the DROP program.
“In September, Council voted to override Nutter’s veto of a bill, sponsored by Tasco that would preserve the DROP program, while reducing its cost,” writes Jan Ransom of the Daily. Nutter has vowed to work “tirelessly” to abolish the program.
And his attempts didn’t deter Tasco.
“While many of Tasco’s fellow council members dropped out of the re-election race after controversy broke out over their enrollment in DROP, Tasco stayed in the race and won,” writes Robert Johnson of Business Insider.
That means, come Monday, she will be elected as City Councilwoman for Philadelphia’s Ninth District, with all the pay and benefits that come with that position — as well as an additional $478,057.
As Business Insider points out, the city’s web page touts Tasco “as one of Philadelphia’s most influential, politically savvy, and pro-active public officials.”
Over the next few days, Tasco could be proving that claim correct.
Ok - good news bad news personally with this post.
Bad news: this ruined my day.
Good news: I have my next American Thinker article topic. This kind of government employee compensation, multiplied by millions and millions of local, state and federal workers, is going to swallow our economy whole. It is crazy.
Evil Conservatives!
Wait, no party in the story. Must be a Democrat.
And you just know if she were a Republican, that fact would have been in the doggoned headline!!
We get the government we let happen.
In Louisiana we saw voters support corrupt populist politicians BECAUSE of the candidate’s corruption!
A person with a situational ethics or Darwinian based values system may actually admire a politician for ‘working’ the system. If there is no right or wrong, no absolutes, then the ‘smart’ person learns to take all he/she can with both hands, and only a fool would worry about whether they actually DESERVED what they take. Once a significant population believes this way and it becomes socially acceptable within a peer group, the peer group then identifies with the culprit in office, admires his actions, and believes they should support a ‘smart’ candidate (who does what they would do) rather than a ‘dumb’ (moral) candidate.
I have always felt this was one of the reasons that the left idolizes William Jefferson Clinton, renowned traitor and thief though he was.
Don’t blame the person, blame the system. It is like an IRS $500,000 tax credit that could be carried forward, would you and I take the tax credit? Of course. It is their system that is set up like a Ponzi scheme and it will be bankrupt long before she gets much of her retirement.
“The last official act of any government is to loot the treasury.” ~ George Washington
I know Louisiana had a plan of this kind in the 1990s but don’t know if it still does because of his huge budget woes.
This system is flawed but I do not see this as the issue. We will never be able to construct a system that is fool-proof, for those who lack moral character to exploit it, that will not also punish good people who have done the right thing yet have legitimate needs. We could put a corral around Tasco but we will hurt many who we would not want to hurt. Over-regulation is the result of moral decay, when a people lose the ability and willingness to manage their own behavior in a manner that is not harmful to others.
Some poll recently said that a Clinton-Clinton ticket could probably carry all fifty states! The American people are so easily fooled that putting hopes in elections is highly misplaced.
It’s practically illegal to be a Republican in Philadelphia; even Arlen Specter felt compelled to return to his ancestral party.
I think this is the original article from a Philly Newspaper.
“DROP participants will retire and return”
It appears there are 2 councilpersons doing this. The other is (Dem) Wills Ronald Donatucci. He collected $366,797.
I think you missed my point and the point of the article too. At least you must have seen a different point than I have.
My point is that at all levels of government, these type golden parachutes have been constructed over 30-40 years of lies about how these “public servants” are so damned underpaid while the public has been told that only private sector CEO’s are over paid.
This is not a one person scam, this is systemic and she apparently is playing within the legalities of the system. The problem is the entire golden parachute system of health and pensions for government employees- especially government school teachers. This is just an eye opening example to a nationwide problem.
I realize that, i was referring to the nationwide treatment of Republicans by the media and not the Philly specific paucity of them.
Now that really is a joke, “to encourage self-sufficiency”? Really?
In the federal service, one can retire, collect a pension, and then come back as a re-employed annuitant. I have known a couple of people who have done this; in my experience, it's usually because an agency is having trouble filling a key post and wants their star performer back, at least for a couple of years. There is an adjustment, either of the salary or the pension, to make sure there's no double dipping, so it really is a case of the employee doing a favor for the agency. Somehow, however, I doubt that is what is going on in Philly.
This system is flawed but I do not see this as the issue. We will never be able to construct a system that is fool-proof, for those who lack moral character to exploit it, that will not also punish good people who have done the right thing yet have legitimate needs. We could put a corral around Tasco but we will hurt many who we would not want to hurt. Over-regulation is the result of moral decay, when a people lose the ability and willingness to manage their own behavior in a manner that is not harmful to others.
But you are correct. As a couple have noted, Louisiana had this sort of system and had to change it for the reasons you identify. However, Louisiana has been a corrupt political system since the Reconstruction Era.
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