Free Republic

A Staten Island power couple made up of the district attorney and a state Supreme Court judge are under scrutiny for “double dipping” by taking in hefty taxpayer-funded salaries and pensions. Both DA Michael McMahon and Judge Judith McMahon are getting paid six-figure salaries while also collecting government pensions that are likely more than $100,000, The Post has learned. DA McMahon “retired” from government service in December — while remaining the borough’s chief prosecutor — and now collects a pension that is likely upwards of $130,000. McMahon, 66, a former legislative staffer, councilman and congressman before becoming district attorney in...

One of the architects of Mayor Bill de Blasio's housing plan is living well at the taxpayer's expense... Anita Laremont, the executive director of the Department of City Planning, as one of four civil servants raking in more than $300,000 this fiscal year thanks to special permission to receive both a public paycheck and public-pension payments. Waivers granted under Section 211 of New York's Retirement and Social Security Law are supposed to allow the state and local governments to attract and retain employees younger than 65 ... the real number of high-earning double-dippers may be considerably greater because waivers are...

Hillary Clinton’s long time confidant, Huma Abedin, is sick and tired of you nasty Republicans dragging her good name through the mud and she’s not going to take it anymore. In response to the mean spirited nature of a Senate Committee asking the State Department to produce certain documents related to her time working for the agency, Abedin’s lawyer has sent a letter to Chuck Grassley telling him he needs to knock off his offensive behavior. (New York Times) A lawyer for Huma Abedin, a top adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton, has accused Charles E. Grassley, chairman of the...

Practically everyone in Washington is talking about a sensational fly-on-the-wall documentary titled Weiner. I guarantee this documentary will not bore you to death. That’s because Weiner is really not about a schmuck named Anthony Weiner, who was forced to resign from Congress after it was revealed he had tweeted sleazy photos of his bulging underwear to various women. Weiner is really about Anthony Weiner’s wife Huma Abedin, who also happens to be Hillary Clinton’s closest personal adviser. As a way of redeeming his name as well as hers, Huma convinced Anthony to run for mayor of New York City—only to...

Taxpayers paid state Supreme Court Chief Justice Nancy Rice nearly $148,000 plus generous government benefits last year. But, since 2007, she collected more than $100,000 in public money teaching University of Colorado law school classes that began during normal judicial business hours, Watchdog.org has found. Public Defender Douglas Wilson and one of his employees, Ann Roan, also were paid for teaching at the CU law school during normal work hours, despite taxpayers paying Wilson more than $138,000 and Roan more than $132,000 a year to do their public defender jobs, documents obtained under state open records laws show. Steve Curtis,...

A dozen members of the Texas congressional delegation reaped state retirement benefits while collecting their federal paychecks over the last two years — a much higher rate than other states’ lawmakers. Thirty-five percent of the 34-member delegation reported dipping into state pension funds in 2012 or 2011, according to recently filed financial disclosure forms. That is nearly twice the one-fifth of all members of Congress members who reported drawing public retirement benefits last year, according to an analysis by the National Journal released Friday. Texas Sen. John Cornyn dipped into three retirement funds in 2010 — more than any other...

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas likes to present himself as a deficit hawk—a red-state conservative who “believes that Congress must be a good steward of the taxpayers’ money,” as his official website declares, and that “fiscal responsibility is the cornerstone for good governance.” So the revelation in the National Journal that the 61-year-old Cornyn is collecting three different state-government pensions while receiving his federal salary as a senator (a total of $239,383 in taxpayer-funded largesse) is slightly off-message, and just a tad inconvenient, as he gets ready to run for a third term next year. “There’s a lot of...

Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn last year supplemented his Senate salary with three public pensions, bringing in some $65,383 in public retirement benefits to add to his $174,000 a year salary for serving as senator. The Texas Republican was elected to the Senate in 2002, and is a former district judge, state Supreme Court justice and state attorney general, reports The National Journal. His largest pension, for $48,807, came through the Judicial Retirement System of Texas, earned while serving on the state Supreme Court from 1991 to 1997. Cornyn, 61, reported another $10,132 in pension benefits from the Employees Retirement...

Sen. John Cornyn has been supplementing his Senate salary for six years with pensions earned from his days as a Texas judge and attorney general – retirement payments that went undisclosed for several years. Cornyn’s most recent annual disclosure statement, filed last month, shows he collected $65,383 from three Texas pension plans in 2012. That’s on top of his $174,000 Senate salary. He drew $48,807 from the Judicial Retirement System of Texas, stemming from service on the Texas Supreme Court from 1990 to 1997, plus $7,645 from the Employees Retirement System of Texas, and $6,444 from the Texas County and...

The Texas Republican earned $65,383 in retirement benefits last year; amended disclosure to show he's been collecting one pension since 2006. Texas Republican John Cornyn supplemented his Senate salary with a trio of public pensions last year from his days as a Texas judge and elected official—a practice some fiscal watchdog groups have attacked as “double dipping.” Cornyn, who is the minority whip and the No. 2 ranking Republican in the Senate, reported collecting $65,383 in public retirement benefits in 2012 in addition to his $174,000 salary as a U.S. senator. Cornyn’s office did not respond to requests for comment....

According to CNBC, some of the 400,000 government workers drew on unemployment benefits during the shutdown, and it’s likely that only some of them will have to give it back — adding a few million to the price of the shutdown, already up in the billions due to lost worker productivity and revenue. The U.S. economy was damaged as well, and that cost may tally up near $24 billion between October and December, if economists are to be believed.

Federal workers who are furloughed because of the government shutdown are beginning to file for unemployment benefits with the District of Columbia. Najla Haywood, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Department of Employment Services, says all initial claims for unemployment need to be filed online due to the increased demand.

Huma Abedin — Hillary Clinton’s longtime aide and the wife of all-but-declared New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner — spent her final months at the State Department working as a part-time consultant with the agency who at the same time was allowed to represent outside clients, POLITICO has confirmed. Abedin, a fixture at the Clintons’ side for at least 15 years — from Iowa to Indonesia — shifted to her new role after maternity leave in the early summer of 2012, according to a source familiar with the arrangement. The new status made her a “special government employee,” which was...

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry is a so-called double dipper, collecting a state government pension and salary totaling more than $240,000. Perry’s disclosure that he “retired” this year while still governor of Texas has become somewhat of an issue in the days leading up to the GOP presidential caucuses in Iowa on Tuesday. Given New Mexico’s distaste for double dipping by public employees, I thought you might want to know more. We banned the practice for most state and local government workers in 2010. Perry, 61, filed a financial disclosure this month with the Federal Election Commission showing he is...

Yes, he’s still governor. He’s “retired” only for benefits purposes, which means he can start collecting his pension while he’s still collecting a salary. It’s perfectly legal. Just … unhelpful. Perry makes a $150,000 annual gross salary as Texas govenor. Now, thanks to his early retirement, Perry, 61, gets a monthly retirement annuity of $7,698 before taxes, or $6,588 net. That raises his gross annual salary to more than $240,000… [T]he disclosure is sure to spark criticism of Perry, who has called for sweeping changes to Social Security for average workers and has railed against special “perks” that members of...

A longstanding practice that allows public workers to simultaneously collect their pension and a state paycheck has caught the attention of state lawmakers and top UW-Madison officials.

Mark Belling Conservative Radio Talk Host (Also Guest Host for Rush Limbaugh) on WISN Radio 1130 in Milwaukee exposes a Wisconsin union scam. Teachers retired and started collecting pension and health benefits have been rehired again as teachers for this year in same school district. This is double dipping and certainly is costing the taxpayers and also new teacher applicants that didn't get hired at a lower new teacher salary.

Romney gets a boost from new funding environment [to bypass normal donation limits] 1st GOP candidate with 'super PAC’ Romney has raised $12 million this year, two-thirds the amount of his own fund-raising. At least four independent “super PACs’’ are being run by the aidesUnlike Romney’s own account, however, which must be painstakingly filled within the confines of individual donation limits, these outside committees are unfettered by such caps. “The new legal landscape is taking us closer to the wild, wild west in terms of how much money is going to be in the process,’’ said Michael Beckel,... nonpartisan Center...

Santa Clara County's veteran fire chief, Kenneth Waldvogel, will retire at the end of the month, but the 57-year-old won't be packing up his office just yet. He'll be back on the job in January, taking home his $236,691 annual salary as a consultant -- on top of a $200,000 yearly state pension. County officials say the move gives them time to search for a new chief, but critics call the deal a classic case of "double-dipping" -- a practice that has outraged the public and frustrated lawmakers trying to rein it in.

"Annuitants" - in public sector parlance - refers to retirees who are rehired to work their old jobs or similar positions, a practice that has become all too common in local and state government. For the retirees, it's just one more way to remain on the public payroll - while collecting pension benefits. But some government leaders see this recycling of employees as a cost-effective measure in tough economic times: These experienced and skilled employees are available to pitch in during busy periods or fill-in temporarily while new or promoted workers are trained to replace them. "They don't receive benefits,...