{"id":4453,"date":"2009-04-09T14:41:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-09T20:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/04\/an-interesting-disclosure-in-the-double-dipping-debate\/"},"modified":"2009-04-09T14:41:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-09T20:41:00","slug":"an-interesting-disclosure-in-the-double-dipping-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/04\/an-interesting-disclosure-in-the-double-dipping-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"An interesting disclosure in the double-dipping debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Mexico Independent<\/a> discloses an interesting fact today in the debate over whether Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> should sign a bill designed to rein in what is called \u201cdouble dipping\u201d by public employees.<\/p>\n

Some 13 employees at the AG\u2019s office, including several high-ranking officials, are what are called \u201creturning retirees\u201d — those who earn an annual salary and draw a retirement pension at the same time.<\/p>\n

The AG\u2019s office says a bill that seeks to place severe restrictions on that — such as capping the salary returning retirees can make at $30,000 — may be unconstitutional. But, according to NMI, the AG\u2019s office won\u2019t tell the public why it thinks that about House Bill 616<\/a>, sponsored by Rep. Luciano \u201cLucky\u201d Varela<\/a>, D-Santa Fe, citing attorney-client privilege between the AG and governor.<\/p>\n

Interesting\u2026<\/p>\n

According to The Associated Press<\/a>, 2,200 retirees have gone back to work in public jobs in New Mexico. That\u2019s nine percent of those drawing state retirement.<\/p>\n

The governor originally pledged to sign the bill but is now wavering, saying he wants to look at \u201cconstitutional\u201d and \u201cfairness\u201d issues, according to KRQE-TV<\/a> in Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

AFSCME\u2019s Carter Bundy, also a columnist for this site<\/a>, was quoted by NMI as saying the 2004 law that allows the retirees to return to work and still earn a pension has been severely abused.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor employers, it\u2019s a great way to reward your friends, and if you\u2019re a public employee, you\u2019d be crazy to not take it. But the fact is that it jeopardizes the state retirement fund, along with other problems,\u201d Bundy said. \u201c\u2026 What we\u2019ve created is a massive incentive for anyone who might have stayed on the job for 30 years or more to now retire at the earliest possible moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New Mexico Independent discloses an interesting fact today in the debate over whether Gov. Bill Richardson should sign a bill designed to rein in what is called \u201cdouble dipping\u201d by public employees. Some 13 employees at the AG\u2019s office, including several high-ranking officials, are what are called \u201creturning retirees\u201d — those who earn an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}