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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

Legislators Protect Pension Perk

Legislation to end a special retirement perk for Idaho state lawmakers who take high-paying state jobs late in their careers had died without a hearing in a Senate committee. “It’s not scheduled for a hearing,” said Senate State Affairs Chairman Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa. “There’s nothing that I see on the horizon that’s going to change that.”  Under the special perk, for the small number of lawmakers who make such career moves at the end of long legislative careers, the years of legislative services are counted as if they were all years of full-time work at the higher pay level, causing pensions to jump by many times. Former House Speaker Lawerence Denney, who was elected Secretary of State this year, will see his state pension soar by 600 percent as a result of the perk, if he serves a single, four-year term/Betsy Russell, Eye on Boise. More here.

Question: What? You thought Idaho legislators were going to pull the feathers out of their own nests? Pshaw ...



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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