Dems Defend Crooked Employees

John Seiler:

Sen. Tony Strickland’s bill to strip pensions from public employees who commit financial felonies on the job failed yesterday in committee. All of the majority Democrats opposed SB 115 in the Senate Committee on Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security.

The bill would have affected only those employees who committed felonies on the job. It was a response to the Bell scandal, in which city employees will receive massive pensions even though they systematically looted the city. The following felonies would have brought termination of pension benefits: accepting, giving, or offering to give a bribe, embezzlement of public money, extortion or theft of public money, tampering with a witness, money laundering, preparation of false documents, or conspiracy to commit any of these crimes.

The bill would not have affected the pensions of those who committed felonies outside of their official duties. For example, a policeman who killed someone in a bar fight, off duty, would not lose his pension.

By defeating SB 115, Democrats have given even crooked employees another reason to keep robbing taxpayers. And the public-employee unions that control the Democratic Party have shown that they are unwilling to discipline even their most wayward members.

In a statement, Strickland said:

The real victims in this case are the taxpayers. They are the ones who will have to pay the outrageous pensions of public employees who violate their trust. This bill would have been a step in the right direction to eliminate the use of precious taxpayer dollars to pay lifelong pensions of public employees turned convicted felons.

If legislators can’t do this simple pension reform — we will have a hard time getting any meaningful reform moving forward.

The bill’s defeat is a microcosm of the routine looting taxpayers suffer every day.

May 3, 2011