Posted on 12/17/2011 2:00:04 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
..On a campaign swing through Cherokee, Iowa, Perry was asked why the Employee Retirement System should be paying his retirement while he's still collecting a salary.
"That's been in place for decades. ... I don't find that to be out of the ordinary," Perry said of the practice. "ERS called me and said, 'Listen, you're eligible to access your retirement now with your military time and your time and service, and I think you would be rather foolish to not access what you've earned.'"
...The governor's gross annual salary is $150,000; his net salary is $133,000. The net monthly annuity check Perry started receiving Jan. 31 is $7,698. Combined, his net pay from the state is now more than $225,000 annually.
...."As part of his standard financial planning, on Jan. 31, 2011, Gov. Perry began to receive a Texas state employee retirement annuity of $7,698 per month before taxes ($6,588 net)," [Ray] Sullivan said. "The annuity is consistent with Texas state law and Employee Retirement System rules."
'Rule of 80'
Perry, 61, has a long record of state service, having won election as a state House member, state agriculture secretary and lieutenant governor before becoming governor in 2000.
Sullivan cited what's known by state employees as the "rule of 80," which allows state employees to start drawing on their retirement when their age plus years of public service credit totals at least 80.
"The combination of Gov. Perry's U.S. military service, state service and age exceeded the state-required 80 years and qualified him for the annuity," Sullivan said.
Perry continues to pay 6.5 percent withholding tax from his state salary to the state retirement system, the spokesman added.....
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
And with a bit of research, Speaker Newt Gingrich was eligible to collect his government pension beginning when he left office in 1999. [possibly $120K X 12 years = $1,440,000.00 + a gold-plated Congressional medical plan] If someone has better numbers please link that information.
And, big deal. Is this really an issue? I don’t think so. He’s entitled to it and so, he’s taking it. Not a one of us would do anything differently, including those making a big issue out of this.
I agree.
I noticed an older FR thread on Gov. Perry’s pension. This article explains the “80” rule.
I expect many school superintendents are earning a much higher salary (and with much less to show for it). The base pay (with many benefits beyond salary) for the Dallas Superintendent of Schools is $332,832.
Gov. Perry is the executive of the 13th largest economy in the world, a state of 25,000,000 (and growing).
Perry is an honest man case closed
They don’t even mention Perry’s income from his years of private sector work.
Yes.
You mean the few years after he got out of the Air Force, when he worked with his dad trying to scratch out a living on a West Texas cotton farm during a drought?
I think its a big deal. If it was Sarah Palin. She would’ve reduced her own takeout. The difference from a reformer to a establishment
........"Also, a warning to Newt Gingrich’s campaign: newtgingrich.com is currently for sale. His campaign, located at newt.org, might want to look into that."
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In Campaign 2012, Web sites are the new real estate ...."A Washington Post analysis of federal campaign spending reports shows that President Obama and Romney spent thousands of dollars this summer at GoDaddy.com."....The Perry campaign said it had not bought many domains; it reported no such expenditures in its campaign finance report filed last week.
“The public is more interested in how the candidates can create jobs and improve the economy, not how many domain names you can rack up,” Perry spokesman Mark Miner said. “We’re not running for student body council here. This is for president of the United States.”
But Perry’s opponents and other parties are buying up domains about Perry. In most cases, the addresses have not been put to use and lead to empty Web pages.
In several instances, anti-Perry domains were bought on the same dates that the Romney or Obama campaigns reported making transactions at GoDaddy.com, according to an analysis of online domain-registration records.
On Aug. 15, two days after Perry launched his campaign, Obama’s campaign spent $3,958 at GoDaddy.com. At least 70 domains containing Perry’s name were bought on the same date."...
oh please
Her government service isn't as long as Gov. Perry's so we will never know, will we?
I smell Karl Rove on this
I have a point to make here, so bear with me.
As many know, I live in a small city in the western part of the nation. What I’m going to tell you is probably repeated in many small to medium sized cities across the U.S. This is going to be a factor in this election, so pay attention.
My water consumption for two months equaled $16.96. My water and sewer bill equaled a grand total of nearly $200. I’ve been unemployed for a year with no unemployment pay.
Why is my public services bill so high?
So I can pay people like Rick Perry hundreds of thousands of $$ in pay even though they shouldn’t be retired before age 65.
You should be asking yourselves this: just because a person can do something, should he/she be doing it?
Rick Perry’s 10th Amendment, small government stand has never been “appreciated” by the GOP establishment. The battle lines have been drawn. Karl Rove (Fox “News” contributor) is certainly in the GOP establishment camp.
When Rove-Bush Machine-Kay Bailey Hutchison ran a primary challenge against Gov. Perry in the last election (Perry won by 20 pts), he certainly didn’t endear himself to the Rockefeller wing of the party.
but we do know. She reduced her own salary and cut her overall spending by 80% from previous governors
sorry but the price you pay for water has nothing to do with what Perry get’s in salary or retirement.. take that up with the state legislature.. paaaleese
How is that relevant? How much were they spending? Alaska has less than 1 million people. Texas has over 25,000,000.
Actually for a career politician he doesn’t have that many assets! Usually they can steal much more than that!!
I don’t see your point on Alaska 1 million and Texas with 25 million people. So?
You’re ignoring the fact that literally millions of Americans are being screwed by double dipping and triple dipping public “servants”, who earn hundreds of thousands of dollars more in retirement monies than members of the general public do in regular wages.
Or are you brain dead?
And if you don’t think this will have an impact on the next election, guess again.
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