December 26, 2007, - 12:37 pm
When A Politician Refusing a Payraise . . . Isn’t Actually Refusing
By Debbie Schlussel
There are so many promises politicians make about their terms in office that are lauded but not really meant. We’ve all heard of Congressmen who said they’d retire after three terms and then chose to run for re-election after that, anyway. And there are so many others like that, I’d be writing forever to enumerate them.
But my favorite tack was just taken by sleazy, corrupt, outgoing Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street. While many formerly around him are in jail for various bribery scandals and other crimes, Street is sitting pretty. And he’s doing far better than those who pass GO in “Monopoly.” Instead of collecting $200, Street will collect more than $111,000 on the way out.
So how does an outgoing Mayor–a public servant–get a $111,000 golden parachute? Well, Street opposed a payraise, as a campaign tactic, when he was running for re-election in 2003 and under fire from scandals. He said that even if the Philly City Council overrode his objection–which it did–he would not take the pay increase.
Now, though, that Street is on the way out, he’s taking that pay increase that he had previously forgone. Street’s salary was $146,000 per year, and the pay raise he refused would have paid him $165,000 per year. Now, Street will “retroactively” collect the $19,000 per year difference in pay per year plus interest, for a total of over $111,000, under the city’s Deferred Retirement Option Plan (which he opposed as part of the pay raise he opposed–he said Philly couldn’t afford it). That’s in addition to the $115,700 Street will get annually as a retirement pension.
The next time a politician publicly announces he/she will forego a payraise, does he/she really mean it . . . or is that just BS for a “Deferred Retirement Option Plan”–to collect the money with interest on the way out?
Pretty sneaky . . . and sleazy.
Tags: Debbie Schlussel There, Philadelphia Mayor, Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street, Philly City Council, Philly Mayor, Philly Mayor John F. Street, politician, Refusing, USD
Sounds like he and that congressman from Louisiana with the cash in his freezer would make a darling duo. Of course he has the “OJ factor” going for him now.
TheOmegaMan on December 26, 2007 at 1:04 pm