Efforts Targeting Double Dipping Could Get Boost

[white cloud]

Government watchdogs swiftly criticized Gov. Rick Perry two years ago after he revealed that he was taking advantage of an obscure perk that allowed a long-serving elected official like him to collect both a salary and pension.

But efforts to ban the practice of double dipping, or even require disclosure of it, went nowhere this year in the Texas Legislature.

That could change when lawmakers meet again in 2015. Attorney General Greg Abbott, the leading Republican candidate to replace the retiring Perry, is pushing ethics reform and recently told a TV station he wanted to prohibit double dipping by politicians. His most likely Democratic opponent, state Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth, also supports the ban.

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http://www.texastribune.org/2013/12/09/momentum-builds-against-double-dipping/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=alerts&utm_campaign=News%20Alert:%20Subscriptions

[Gothmog]

1. John Cornyn is double dipping or triple dipping

Senator Boxturtle is a triple dipper http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/19/john-cornyn-s-three-pensions-make-for-one-uncomfortable-gop-situation.html

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.

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3. Is Jerry Patterson

also a double dipper?

[Gothmog]

4. Yes and he is somewhat brazen about it

Patterson is claiming that he needs to double dip in order to afford to live on the Lt. Governor salary http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/us/after-setbacks-a-ban-on-double-dipping-could-gain-traction.html

Already, Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, a Republican, is pledging to use the law to increase his pay if he gets elected lieutenant governor in 2014. Otherwise, he said, he could not afford to take the job, which pays the same paltry sum legislators get.

With 23 years of elected service credit, Mr. Patterson, a former state senator, could collect as much as $74,000 a year in the elected class.

[roody]

2. Branstad aka Braindead, governor of

Iowa, is also a double dipper.