Retirement boosts and ‘the smell test’…

Here’s a link to my full story from November on the payment of more than $125,000 in retirement boosts in six months to three employees at three different state agencies in exchange for their earlier-than-planned retirements; at the time, the move prompted comments from top lawmakers that it “doesn’t quite pass the smell test.” The reason: Idaho state law bans severance payments, though the state maintains the moves didn’t violate the severance ban because the payments went to the employees’ accounts at the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho, not to the employees themselves.

Here’s a link to a roundup of the laws involved , and here’s a link to the history of the no-severance law , which has its roots in a 1993 political scandal that opened then-U.S. Sen. Dirk Kempthorne’s term in office. Today, the House State Affairs Committee voted unanimously to introduce legislation to ban the retirement boosts.