A retired Lynnfield cop — whose dubious unemployment claim triggered a sweeping effort to reform state law — had his jobless benefits reinstated yesterday in a controversial decision that has sparked cash-strapped cities and towns to renew their bid to close the costly loophole.
In a nutshell, this Lynnfield cop retires and gets a $32,000 pension. He starts working police details to supplement his retirement income. But he hits the ceiling of $25,000 (after which this detail pay will get cut from his retirement pay). So… this guy files for unemployment to the tune of $400 a week. So he gets a pension check AND an unemployment check. The town files a complaint with unemployment and yesterday the Unemployment Board sided with the cop. WTF!!!!
Never mind the whole police detail bullcrap as I’m sure this 70 year old cop is not going to be saving lives or chasing bad guys while he sips his coffee and directs traffic. But he is a great example of how the public sector is sucking our funds dry while other worthwhile needy programs are strapped for cash. Due to the change in the MA law, many towns are creating sharp disposal programs which can be funded for only $2,000/year… how many towns could get similar programs for just what we’ll pay this scammer? This is a horrible precedent.
What is our pension reform Governor prepared to do about this? We need real reform and not the window dressing police detail reform scam that he dumped on us before.
Do something about this Gov Patrick! If he does, then I will publicly thank you and give you praise. And for all you union supporters and defenders, this is a great example of why people are so skeptical and cynical of unions… and why I disdain them so much!
I don’t see anything in your story about union involvement. Of course you always have to be careful about whether single examples indicate the norm – I don’t know. Even if the unions advocated for this arrangement my response is to say I disagree with them on this item rather a more general unions are bad attitude.
Do you think this a fair for tax payers? Should the Gov lead a charge to change this loophole? Does this piss you off at all?
I’m hoping I don’t hear a response of “this is a small amount of money compared to other wasteful spending…”. Let’s stop acting on items which are not considered huge, we need to cut everywhere we can.
His detail pay would have been deducted from his pension payments, but unemployment compensation doesn’t get deducted from his pension payments? That does seem to be a problem with the law, and it should be changed.
An unemployment claim for $400 per week will also come with a max earnings clause – he’ll be able to earn some small amount of money weekly, after which any money he earns eats into his UC benefit. $32,000 per yer is over $600 per week – it seems to me that he shouldn’t receive anything from the unemployment system.
Is a pension considered income?
John, in your post, you’re screaming for the governor to do something – did you read the article you linked to? The governor has done, and actively is doing, something – from your link:
You should be screaming at your state rep and state senator – they need to make this a priority, the governor has already taken what actions he can.
Last time something like this came up, the Republican candidate for governor was very happy to accept the endorsement of police unions.
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I find this stuff absolutely outrageous too — and it’s because I want government to work, work more, and work better. I would happily support increased salaries for police officers — and the taxes to pay for them — if we could get better policing.
Told them both to work with the Governor to fix this loophole. As much as I love the reduction in state workers and the reduction of benefits they receive, I would really love it if we could restore the public’s faith in the public sector. Stopping stories like this and other atrocious examples of scams would go a long way to making the general public support their public workers.
Great article, as as we all know, this is just the tip of the iceberg of who public unions are bankrupting cities/towns and states. Their mentality is “grab what you can” in hopes nobody catches their hands in the cookie jar.
Did you know these pensions, regardless of dollar amount, are exempt from the MA income tax? Is this really fair? Is it necessary to attract employees to work in the public sector?
I asked Gov. Patrick this question on the Dan Rea show back in 2009. To his credit, he didn’t even know about it but has done nothing to correct it.
In Waltham alone, we are on the hook for over half billion dollars in unfounded healthcare obligations. That works out every single family home owner needs to pay an extra $20,000 just to cover this “little” nut. This is why I want a single payer h/c system, so we can offload these obligations to the federal govt.
Also keep in mind these 1950’s style benefits drive up the costs for private sector employees, who have to compete with the give-aways offered in the public sector.
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I don’t know if your computer charges by the letter, but whatever point you were trying to make is lost on many of us, myself included. Please loosen up your purse stings, and share a full thought.
If you know EBCDIC, you know what I just said…
that should read E3E36BC4C6 – silly me!
… that would make your head spin. (and I am about as pro-worker as a management type gets.)
It’s not public employees trying to find loopholes in the system, it is ALL employees.