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 ...
He has served his country, and is still serving. I don’t begrudge him anything he has earned. This article and others harping on it is just more class warfare, and even from some here on FR.
30 MINUTE Presidential Candidate [Perry] Holds Agriculture Conference Call [no subsidies on ethanol, or gas or oil or wind-- CUT regulations and let the free market decide -- if states want to invest in local business, go for it but don't have the federal government involved.]
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Back in Texas Perry angered the medical association with a VETO and they supported his rival NOW THEY SUPPORT PERRY because they can see now how he was helping them and they couldn't see it.
Betting on Rick Perry - a winner in a GOP year, with no need in the world to win liberal approval ………..”IT WILL BE THE JOBS ISSUE—and Texas’s record in creating them—that will define Rick Perry’s presidential run. Since he became governor in 2001, the U.S. as a whole has had a net loss of private-sector jobs, while Texas—which has only 8 percent of the nation’s population—has had a net gain of 825,000 jobs.......
If there is on issue which Perry has made a personal crusade, it is lawsuit reform. Working with the legislature, he has helped pass curbs on frivolous lawsuits, implemented a first-in-the-nation system under which loser pays all court costs in many lawsuits, and reformed medical malpractice law.
Dick Weekley, the co-founder of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, says Perry showed genuine political courage in resisting calls for watered-down reforms that wouldn’t have addressed the core problem. He recalls that in 2002 Perry vetoed a bill strongly supported by doctors that would have required them to prompt payment from health maintenance organizations.
In the eyes of the tort reform advocates, the bill was a Trojan Horse compromise negotiated between doctors and trial lawyers. “There was a huge response from physicians [against the veto],” Kim Ross, the former top lobbyist for the Texas Medical Association, said.
TMA went so far as to endorse Tony Sanchez, Perry’s millionaire Democratic opponent in the 2002 election. “Perry sent a signal that he wanted real reform and would stand his ground,” Weekley told me. “Soon the medical lobbyists playing footsie with the trial lawyers were gone and the obstacles to real reform started falling.”………………..
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AND now the TMA is endorsing Gov. Rick Perry. They understand now what he was doing would HELP them.
...."The Texas Medical Association’s political action committee recently endorsed him for president, and its members are helping him raise money and make connections with medical groups in other states.".... source
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A letter describing one Texan’s experience with these reforms: “I live under the light hand of the Texas system–a hand that Governor Perry has done everything in his power to make lighter.”…………. Texas Gov Rick Perry Is The Only Right Choice For The 2012 GOP Nomination
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Rick Perry: "I will work to make D.C. as inconsequential in your lives as possible."
Ask yourself this question - is your problem Rick’s fault? No, it isn’t. Hopefully, we can get rid of the POS now residing in the WH and get a president who will unleash the private sector to create jobs.
Who says a person can’t retire before age 65? It’s apparent you don’t know the laws very well. While your case is sad, it isn’t Rick Perry’s fault. He has paid his dues.
My take on it?
Governor Perry earned it, he is entitled to it.
Contrasted with the Pretenda from Kenya, whose life is now lavished with excessive vacations, golf courses, dinners (not to mention the largesse the First Wookie is marinading in), the difference is that 0bama-lama-ding-dong hasn’t earned ANY of it, he’s a slacker and a parasite.
If Governor Perry ends up taking on the job of the ‘Orkin Man’ to fumigate the White House, I’ll be on board.
I got a solution for you SD:
Run for office. Sounds like you already have a platform to run on.
He has paid in for 25 years. And has 30 years of Government service if you include his 5 years in the Air Force.
It DOES matter where you live.
His pension is a state pension. The state of Texas.
Texas is not broke like many other states.
per Will Franklin’s daily Perry Almanac:
Texas added 20,800 jobs in Nov that brought the total to 226,000 jobs. Private Sector added 22,700 jobs last month and 289,900 in the past year.
Texas has experienced 19 consecutive months of positive job growth.
And, unlike the national labor force, which is shrinking as people give up and drop out (which ultimately makes the national unemployment rate look better than it actually is), Texas continued to grow its labor force. Even the manufacturing sector added 3,900 jobs last month, bringing the total to 25,200 for the year.
Texas has a projected $1.6 Billion surplus.
In my opinion, he should be paid 3x what he is making because he has earned it.
There are Mayors and City Councilmen here in Texas that make more than the Governor.
And as was pointed out in a post above, Perry has proposed that he would try to get Congress + Staff Salary cut in half. He said as President, he would take a 50% cut in pay.
He has even mentioned as you that Fed government jobs should not be more than the same private sector jobs.
You have a point but blaming it on Perry is out of line.
Agreed. This became an issue in Wisconsin where teachers and superintendents were double dipping and illegally arranging their succession to their own job. It is a big time cost a.d a political issue especially when government os no longer affordable.
Agreed. This became an issue in Wisconsin where teachers and superintendents were double dipping and illegally arranging their succession to their own job. It is a big time cost a.d a political issue especially when government os no longer affordable.
Governor Perry lived on a farm. If you write him a letter I'll bet he could give you instructions on how to do that.
I think Perry OUGHT to be trying to reform this, as Gov.
I find the idea that he deserves retirement pay of $92,000 annually bizarre. I know politicians make sure they have huge retirements beyond the dreams of almost anyone in the private sector...but 92K? Based on being “a state House member, state agriculture secretary and lieutenant governor”?
Sorry, but I don’t think being a politician is “service”.
And BTW - my retirement pay for 25+ years in the military is about $50K. Given the conditions I lived under much of the time, I would have quit the military after about 8 years without the promise of retirement. So - how many state House members quit because their job means they spend much of each year living in tents away from their family? How many Lt Govs quit because they are tired of being shot at?
I also find this comment of yours obscene for a conservative:
“Gov. Perry is the executive of the 13th largest economy in the world, a state of 25,000,000 (and growing).”
Really? He is the CEO of all Texas? I thought he was responsible for the Texas state government...not the entire Texas economy.
When are the Board meetings for the Unified Texas Private Economy?
And a lot of those Wisconsin retirees move to states that don’t have state income tax [like Texas].
It really is up to state and local citizens to sort this out.
Remember the mess in Bell, California [one of the more infamous CA messes]?
I work the night shift.
Sun’s coming up here.
Over to you now.
Show me another governor who has worked harder or had more success than Rick Perry has in maintaining and promoting economic stability during this crippling Obama depression? I’m sure there are others but Perry’s the leader of the pack.
Because he’s pushed back against federal regulations, lawsuits and pushed for and achieved lower state spending, and gone out and brought business from around the country back here to Texas, he gets our votes and has earned his paycheck.
If the people of Texas want to cut government pension payments, it will happen.
The above is not a "golden parachute." In fact, ERISA prohibits an active employee from receiving any disbursement from the employer's DB Plan without termination first. There is an exception to that rule and it's called the age 70 1/2 Rule (which is a non issue in this discussion)
If that was not the law, then virtually every employee currently of retirement age under their respective employer's Defined Benefit Retirement Plan would be drawing their pensions as well as continuing their employment.....
Oh well have a beer on me then!
True. He’s 61 he’s drawing his retirement. Half the people in this country are taking their SS at 62.
Sarah Palin didn't.
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