Batt Appointees Get Pension Perks Former Lawmakers Will Benefit From Retirement Rule Batt Had Tried To Eliminate
Gov. Phil Batt has provided seven former Republican legislators with the prospect of bigger retirement checks.
The lawmakers, who took highpaying posts in Batt’s administration, are almost guaranteed to have their retirement benefits as much as quadrupled under a state employment rule Batt has campaigned to eliminate.
As a state senator in the mid-1980s, Batt sponsored legislation to eliminate that benefit. And in his State of the State address in January, the new governor asked lawmakers again to eliminate it.
But since taking office, Batt has appointed seven people who would benefit from the rule.
Under the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho, lawmakers are eligible for retirement benefits even though they are part-time workers.
For instance, a 10-year legislative veteran would receive about $200 a month after retiring based on a legislative salary of $12,000 a year.
If that same lawmaker takes a $50,000-a-year state job and holds it at least 42 months, their pension is computed as if the person had spent nearly 14 years working at the higher salary level. At age 65, the lawmaker can expect to draw a monthly check of more than $1,100.
In his State of the State address, Batt proposed taking lawmakers and appointees out of the Public Employee Retirement System and establishing individual retirement accounts for them. But he stands by his appointments.
“He’s not going to disregard qualified people because he disagrees with the state retirement system,” Batt spokeswoman Amy Kleiner said. “I think the way you want to go about it would be to fix the state retirement system and keep the qualified people.”
Republicans did not invent the system and they are not the first to take advantage of it. The state’s Democratic governors often appointed former legislators to top posts in their administration.
“It’s very difficult for taxpayers to understand how high-level government officials can write their own pension plans and have it not be generous,” said Pete Seep, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based National Taxpayers Union. “It’s almost a given if you’re allowed to write your own pension plan, it’s going to be favorable to you.”
But the prospect of a fatter pension was little incentive to take the jobs, the lawmakers say.
“You don’t serve in the Legislature for money or retirement or benefits,” said former state Sen. Roger Madsen of Boise, who was named director of the Idaho Department of Employment. “Certainly, it was something that didn’t come up on my computer screen.”
Former Sen. Rachel Gilbert of Boise, who was named to the Idaho Industrial Commission, said she provided for her retirement long before taking the appointment, although she expects to accept the pension checks.
“It would be foolish to turn down something that a person has earned, but that was never a consideration in anything I’ve ever done for the people of Idaho,” she said.
Former state Rep. Jesse Berain of Boise, who now heads the Idaho Office on Aging, is 66 and draws a pension as a retired federal employee. He said he took the state job to help Batt.
“By the time I get out of here, I’m going to be past 70,” Berain said. “You don’t make a four-year commitment at age almost 67 thinking in terms of money.”
The other former lawmakers who benefit from the PERSI rule are Pam Ahrens, named to head the Department of Administration; Dennis Hansen, appointed to a six-year term on the Idaho Public Utilities Commission; Mary Hartung, named as a special assistant in Batt’s office; and Michael Johnson, named director of the new state Department of Juvenile Corrections.
Former state Sen. Rod Beck of Boise is the only Batt appointee who would not benefit from the Public Employee Retirement System rule. Batt selected Beck last month as executive director of the Idaho Housing Agency. But the quasigovernmental agency is not covered by the state pension plan, and Beck’s six years in the Senate do not count toward his IHA pension plan.