Posted on 08/23/2007 10:01:06 AM PDT by SmithL
CHATTANOOGA — Four of five lawmakers convicted in the federal Tennessee Waltz corruption sting will still collect state pensions.
They are eligible for the pensions because they joined the state retirement system before the law was changed to strip convicted lawmakers of the benefit. The four former state senators and the amounts of their monthly pensions are:
—Ward Crutchfield, D-Chattanooga: $3,500.
—John Ford, D-Memphis: $2,700.
—Roscoe Dixon, D-Memphis: $1,456.
—Kathryn Bowers, D-Memphis: $1,000.
The fifth lawmaker convicted in the sting, former Rep. Chris Newton, R-Cleveland, is not eligible for a pension because he joined the system in 1997, four years after the law was changed.
Ford, Crutchfield and Bowers could not be reached for comment by the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Dixon is serving a five-year prison sentence in Federal Detention Center in Oakdale, La.
Begun in 2004, the Tennessee Waltz operation focused on E-Cycle Management, a fake company that was supposedly trying to set up business in the state buying and reselling used government computers.
FBI agents posed as E-Cycle representatives offering payoffs for a change in state law and for an inside shot at landing local government contracts.
A law passed last year revised the rules for pensions for convicted lawmakers. Under the sweeping ethics law that followed the arrests in the Tennessee Waltz sting, lawmakers must agree each time they are elected — or re-elected — that they will waive their pension if they are convicted of crimes related to their official duties.
But the new rules are not retroactive.
“About the only thing we could do was to say if you decided to run again and you were convicted, then you would be putting your pension at risk,” said Sen. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge.
Jill Bachus, director of the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System, said legislative pensions generally are calculated at $70 a month multiplied by the legislator’s years of service.
Hmmm - all democrat too!
The article didnt say, are these figures per month? I assume they are.
excuse my ignorance. the article DOES SAY they are per month.
Notice they are all from memphis to. What a crap hole. They make DC look like a well run town. I had the unfortunate luck of being there for several years. People are running as fast as they can from the city limits of Memphis which keeps expanding and taxing people.
Probably get cost of living increases too.
$2700 a month must look like such a pittance to John Ford. That probably won’t even cover his coke tab.
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