When One Dip Isn't Enough

Mark Lagerkvist has performed a valuable service to us all in his very informative Op-Ed piece in the Washington Examiner linking to his article posted on the New Jersey Watchdog site in which he identifies, by name, 125 double-dipping "retirees" employed by New Jersey county prosecutor's offices across the state who are raking in nearly $10 million in salary on top of over $8.5 million in pension payments per year.

All this is costing New Jersey taxpayers over $18 million a year. This averages out to about $79,500 in salary on top of nearly $69,000 in pension payments per year for 125 individuals. This goes on while we face not only a fiscal crisis in New Jersey but what some identify as the country’s highest real estate taxes and a 9.1 percent unemployment rate that exceeds the national average by one-half percent.

Mr. Lagerkvist does the numbers for us and identifies 56 retired municipal and county officers and 37 retired state police officers now employed by various county prosecutors, nine retired municipal and county officers now employed by the Attorney General’s Division of Criminal Justice, and 23 retired state officers now employed as investigators and supervisors for the department of Criminal Justice and the Office of the Attorney General.

So, we’re talking about an average retirement age of 49 and two checks per week averaging out to a yearly average of $148,000. Nice work if you can get it.

Here’s one that will pop your eyes open: One of the double-dippers is an 83-year-old retired judge salaried at $40,000 per year on top of his pension.

Many of these individuals retired as state employees on one day, qualifying them for their pensions, and then went to work the next day as, guess what, a state employee.

Of the 125 identified, 13 went to work at their new jobs before they officially retired (how’s that work?), 41 went back to work the next day or earlier, and 63 were retired for less than one month before going back to work.

Mr. Lagerkvist has identified wording in state pension rules that makes one think that not everything that is going on here is on the up and up. So, what’s in question is whether the millions these individuals are siphoning out of the state pension funds are actually being collected legally as per the state’s pension rules. Unfortunately, it’s doubtful that much will be done to answer that question because the attorney general, who employs many of the double-dippers, advises the state pension boards and plays a key role in interpreting and enforcing N.J pension laws.

So, here’s the deal: The jobs most of these individuals qualify for after retirement are low-ranking, unclassified positions that are often regarded as “patronage plums” that are used to reward friends or allies.

BTW: It gets worse because there are charges that there are actually triple-dippers, but that’s a story for another time. At this point the major question that should concern us all revolves around who will investigate the attorney general’s “retired” and re-hired investigators? If anyone can answer that one I’d be interested in the answer.