thx... this state is sooooo screwed
Posted on 05/07/2014 8:02:31 AM PDT by aimhigh
New York’s highest court on Tuesday held that the names of state and local government retirees receiving pensions may not be shielded from the public.
The 6-0 decision by the New York Court of Appeals, which reversed a consistent string of lower court rulings, was a setback to public employee unions in the state that have fought for years to prevent a conservative fiscal watchdog group in Albany from collecting the pension records and including them in a searchable database.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
I’m sure the NY paper that mapped all the gun owners was a strong supporter of the release of these records.
The issue is the same as publishing the names of those who have gun licenses. How many of these retirees are retired law enforcement personnel? How easy do you want to make it for those who look for retribution against those officers who put them away? People want to “embarrass” those who collect big pensions, but at the same time, you put those who protected us in harm’s way? Absolute insanity.
They publish them in CA. The unions don’t like it because it exposes the lies about how “small” the public employee pensions and benefits are.
Munis, cities and states are over-run w/ greedy govt employees salivating over pension/disabilty payouts ......like this creep.
Seems a conniving former cop in a NJ city is making another attempt to get a hefty state disability pension even though the dumbo's first attempt cost him his job.
BACKSTORY In 2010, the conniving policeman dreamed up a perfect plan: While he was alone on the job---on patrol---his wife would drive up in a dark van, shoot him in the leg, then escape----to be described as an "unknown assailant"
B/c if the conniving greedster cop were injured "in the line of duty," he could retire on disability, with a tax-free pension of about $50,000 a year, for the rest of his life.
Alas, when the Mrs fired, she missed her husband and shot-up his pants leg instead. Undeterred by this "minor detail," the conniver-cop reported the "shooting by an unknown assailant" over police radio.....
......but an astute plainclothes officer, who happened to be nearby, nabbed the "unknown assailant"-----the Mrs.
The jig was up. The law came down.
The county prosecutor made a deal the cop couldn’t refuse: one count of disorderly conduct, a year of probation, $158 in fines and court costs and loss of his police job of 17 years......
His one consolation was having a souvenir of the "shooting"....a pair of unusable pants.
BELIEVE IT OR NOT Now, he's going for a disability claim, again, that he allegedly suffered two years before his sharpshooting wife hit his pants leg.
So? If he had suffered a disability in 2008, why did he set up the shady 2010 shooting scheme w/ his wife?
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MORAL OF THE STORY Govt employees must lay awake nights dreaming up ways to cash in on the backs of the taxpayers.
There have been reported cases of cops on the job also collecting disability.
And "retired" cops collecting munificent pensions, working in other states.
In NJ, it was found at least 10 officials are collecting both a public pension and a public salary.
Another case involved a cop retiring, collecting a pension, but holding the same job he retired from.
“People want to “embarrass” those who collect big pensions, but at the same time, you put those who protected us in harm’s way? “
“Protected us?” Yeah, right! More likely abused hundreds if not thousands of us. Those who live by the sword, need to be exposed. Especially when they are ripping us off in their “retirement years.” Here in California, all these pension benefits are public. Nice to see all the cops and firemen who have retired at 50, and are making $250k per year and up along with full healthcare. Crooks with badges, continuing to steal from those whom they abused.
Circa 2009---http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=alOHQSn5zgOk
Hank Morris, the chief political consultant to then-NY state comptroller Alan Hevesi, who administers the $100 billion state pension fund, was charged criminally in March 2009 with selling access to pension fund assets in exchange for kickbacks from money managers such as Liberty Oak that wanted the lucrative pension investment business.
Memphis-based Consulting Services Group, which created the Liberty Oak fund-of-funds for the state, is identified in both the Morris indictment and the SEC complaint as having paid him fees.
CSG hasn’t been criminally charged or sued by the SEC.
Liberty Oak received $200 million on July 1, 2006, the same day EnTrust received $15 million from Liberty Oak, according to Whalen. EnTrust got another $5 million through Liberty Oak on June 1, 2007, he said. John Nester, a spokesman for the SEC, declined to comment on whether EnTrust is under investigation.
Then-AG Andrew Cuomo (now NY governor) prosecuted the case---but recused himself b/c he used one of the financial entities.
Liberty Oak was established in June 2006 for a portfolio of hedge fund investments for the New York state Common Retirement Fund. CSG, as general partner of the fund, managed the hedge fund investments for the state.
Morris brazenly established an offshore account to funnel crooked monies.
NOTE Morris and Hevesi both went to jail----were recently released (to enjoy the billions they stashed away offshore).
They publish them in CA. The unions don’t like it because it exposes the lies about how “small” the public employee pensions and benefits are.”””
Jerry Brown won’t like that when he finally retires...
How many pensions has he accumulated? 2 stints as Governor.
2 or 3 stints as Mayor of Oakland.
Sec of State
State Attorney General.
He won’t get a pension from the Seminary school- he was kicked out of that.
How would you like to earn a pension while getting your hair cut, playing golf or going to a cocktail party? Sounds sweet? Well, run for public office. Those are some of the presumably vital public activities that Albany County legislators had the gall to list in their time sheets in order to amass enough hours to qualify for pension credits.
Standing out in a pretty shameful crowd was the NY Legislature’s chairman, Shawn Morse, who went so far as to earn two pensions simultaneously, Times Union reporter Brendan Lyons found in a review of time sheets. Mr. Morse booked hours in his part-time county post while he was on duty as a full-time Cohoes firefighter. That’s not allowed by the state pension system, even if he was doing county business during his downtime in a firehouse.
But don’t just single out one lawmaker or one county legislature. This is a problem all across New York at every level of government: politicians feathering their personal nests at taxpayer expense.
The issue isn’t just the rank cheating that goes on as lawmakers stretch the meaning of work in order to qualify for pension credits. The issue is also whether such part-time elected posts should even been treated like government jobs at all.
Elected officials in New York state can qualify for state pensions if they work at their office full time, which in local governments across the state is defined as 30 hours — the minimum allowed — under resolutions passed annually by — you guessed it — the very town and county legislative bodies that benefit from this definition of full-time employment.
The state requires officials to provide, once every eight years, a three-month sample of their time to prove they meet that threshold. And lo and behold, many do — some by plugging in activities that really have no government purpose, and whose main purpose is to keep the politician elected — fundraising, speaking to community groups, or just showing up, which, for better or worse, could easily be the entire job description of some lawmakers.
But what New York’s long-suffering taxpayers need perhaps even more is a re-examination of who qualifies for a state pension and who doesn’t. Perhaps they’re appropriate for full-time mayors and supervisors and highway superintendents, most of whom likely put in a full week, week in and week out. But what justification is there at all for public pensions for part-time legislators — village, town, city, county, and, yes, state. Perhaps state legislators most of all.
It’s state lawmakers, remember, who make the big decisions on the state’s costly retirement system. How can we expect them to take what needs to be a compassionate but hard look at the system and make sensible decisions about it, when lawmakers themselves stand to gain or lose by those very decisions?
We elect people to local, county and state legislative bodies to represent and govern, not to become part of the bureaucracy. Ending pensions for these representatives would be a step toward focusing them more on the public’s interest and less on their own.
http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/new-yorks-pension-scam/25564/
It is not the same issue. Posting the personal information of private citizens is not the same as publishing information about public employees.
Further the paper published the addresses of the permit holders. What "purpose" did that serve?
Thank you the precise and accurate comment Liz.
Mmmmmmm.........that is a powerful statement by the A/T/U.
Of interest to you.
For every officer who abused the pension system, I’ll show you a thousand who served with honor and dignity, collect a pension for doing so, and don’t want their information listed in a newspaper. We all put away plenty of bad guys who would LOVE to find us.
thx... this state is sooooo screwed
Occupational hazard. Deal with it.
Seriously, you think a perp who you put away should be able to get out of jail and find where you and your loved ones live through pension records? What cop messed with you?
Hey cops shoot dogs, old people in their beds, plant drugs on innocent people, choke the mentally ill to death, and then walk away. They’ve morphed into some way beyond the peace officers I grew up with.
In fact they’ve become downright scary and dangerous. I know longer care about any risk you have to live with. Cops are public employees. Every aspect of their compensation is the publics business. Don’t like it? Find another job.
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