Posted on 02/20/2014 9:10:34 PM PST by gopno1
Two buyers of tax delinquent properties in sales rigged by then-Madison County treasurer Fred Bathon were sentenced Wednesday to prison for a federal antitrust violation...
Bathon, elected to office as a Democrat, strategically seated top campaign contributors in front of auctioneers to drown out the bids of others in the room, officials said. In 2007, officials said, 99 percent of the tax liens went to bidders at the statutory maximum interest rate of 18 percent. The rates dropped sharply under Bathon’s successors..Bathon pleaded guilty earlier of an antitrust violation and was sentenced by Herndon to 30 months in prison, a $20,000 fine and two years on probation. Bathon also lost a public pension that might have been worth as much as $2 million...
Prosecutors said Bathon’s top six donors, including McLean, Rochman and Vassen, got 76 percent of about 9,200 parcels auctioned from 2005-09, lending money on about $17 million in back taxes. The three other major donors have not been criminally charged.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
Bathon also lost a public pension that might have been worth as much as $2 million.
You have to be kidding me. This guy is an elected COUNTY TREASURER. There is no rational reason that anyone in this position should be eligible for a 2 million dollar public pension. Absolutely disgusting.
“You have to be kidding me. This guy is an elected COUNTY TREASURER. There is no rational reason that anyone in this position should be eligible for a 2 million dollar public pension. Absolutely disgusting.”
Well, here in Northern California we have had two fire chiefs retire ( one right after the other, 2 years apart) when they reached “their mandated retirement age of 50.” You do the math. If they (and their spouses) live to be 80 (which is a good bet with the gold plated health care they all get) and their retirements starting above $250,000 per year, two million happens in eight years for each of them and they may still have another 22 to go, or at least their wives will. Firefighters: “we eat till we’re sleepy, then sleep till we’re hungry” (and the taxpayers pick up our food tab).
Completely insane. I have no problem with pensions, but not of this nature. A fire chief with a 250k pension? Absurd. Mandatory retirement at 50? What the hell is that all about?
It's all about greedy unions and the democrats that do their bidding for campaign cash.
“Mandatory retirement at 50? What the hell is that all about?”
Actually, I misspoke, partially. “Public Safety Employees” in California are eligible for full retirement at 50. The “so-called reasoning” is that these are “stress-filled jobs” that are the “young man’s province.” Where it really gets “insane” as you put it, is when you find, for instance, that all the LA County Lifeguards are part of the LA Fire Department and the “White Hats” at the airport are considered “cops.” so they get the same deal. Can you imagine sitting around for 30 years on an elevated platform watching bikini-clad women walk by, and then get to retire with more monthly income than you are making while working? Sure, they do rescue an occasional swimmer, but it’s not like the beach is a war zone!
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