Private lobbyists get public pensions in 20 states

[n2doc]

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — As a lobbyist in New York's statehouse, Stephen Acquario is doing pretty well. He pulls down $204,000 a year, more than the governor makes, gets a Ford Explorer as his company car and is afforded another special perk:

Even though he's not a government employee, he is entitled to a full state pension.

He's among hundreds of lobbyists in at least 20 states who get public pensions because they represent associations of counties, cities and school boards, an Associated Press review found. Legislatures granted them access decades ago on the premise that they serve governments and the public. In many cases, such access also includes state health care benefits.

But several states have started to question whether these organizations should qualify for such benefits, since they are private entities in most respects: They face no public oversight of their activities, can pay their top executives private-sector salaries and sometimes lobby for positions in conflict with taxpayers. New Jersey and Illinois are among the states considering legislation that would end their inclusion.

"It's a question of, 'Why are we providing government pensions to these private organizations?'" said Illinois Democratic Rep. Elaine Nekritz.

more

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/private-lobbyists-get-public-pensions-20-states

[nashville_brook]

1. k and r

[octoberlib]

2. This is ridiculous. nt

[JimDandy]

3. Cities and counties form these associations specifically to evade

public oversite and transparency. They have won court cases against requests for public disclosure on the argument that they are a private entity, and all the while each city and county's membership 'dues' to their association and travel costs to their meetings are paid for from the public trough.

In addition, a significant number of bills they lobby for/against are counter to the public's interest.

This is long past overdue. These lobbying associations shouldn't be able to claim they're a private entity while continuing to collect taxpayer funded pensions for their lobbyists.

[KoKo]

4. Recommend!

[RainDog]

5. k&r n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. But, but, but public employees... derp derp, derp

fun fact, the average public employee pension in San Diego is 24K a year.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

8. And ~$20K in Illinois.

Illinois has a pension problem but no one wants to look at the simple ways to resolve it while there's any chance of doing some union busting in the process.
The PTB have done a great PR job here in getting non-pensioners to look at us pensioners and take either of the following positions:

1) Those featherbedding, goldbricking public employees are ripping us off with their gold plated deals! Nobody gets pensions anymore! Where's mine?! I'm not going to pay one more penny in taxes to fix this mess!
2) Sure the public employees aren't to blame. They paid in to the system all theses years BUT they have to be realistic! We just don't have the money!

I've been spending an awful lot of time following published stories on this and fighting ignorance with facts in the comments sections. It's just exhausting.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. We try, but the other attitude is... I got mine, now F U.

[malaise]

7. This is criminal

Meanwhile the teachers, firemen, public servants, police, etc. lose their pensions.

[bvar22]

9. Public Money shoveled into "private" pockets...

This is the Holy Grail for Conservatives and "NeoLiberals" (3rd Way, "New Dems" DLC, etc).

Be prepared for another dam burst between Public Money and "Private Pockets" in 2014 when Billions in "subsidies" begin to flow from the Public Treasury into the Private Pockets of the Health Insurance Industry.



[font size=3]Hold on to your Dreams,
cause we're TAKING everything else,
and ain't NOBODY gonna stop us!
Hahahahahahaha

[Chuuku Davis]

11. From the Onion?

Right??

[madville]

12. That's a new one to me

I thought it was ridiculous when the Chicago union pension scandal broke a couple of years ago, this might beat that one.

[DiverDave]

13. SHINANIGANS, I call

SHINANIGANS, get the pitchforks out LOL