‘Double-dipping’ must end now

DJ Kurz
Lambertville
    What do Sen. Loretta Weinberg, Cabinet Secretary Lou Goetting, and Assistant Insurance Commissioner Joseph Brennan all have in common?
   They (and scores of others) are all retired public sector employees, who have gone back to work for the state and are collecting state wages while also collecting taxpayer-funded state pensions.
   This practice, known by some as “double-dipping,” is egregious and must come to an end. With 9.8 percent of New Jersey residents suffering from unemployment, a 35-year high, these well-connected state officials collect two paychecks instead of one.
   Today, the system allows government employees to “retire,” start collecting a pension and then return to work for the state, often the next day or week. Many start work at their new state jobs one day after retiring from their previous state positions.
   New Jersey has done zilch to end double dipping by public employees.
   I propose a new law be passed straightaway that would end the practice of retired government employees working a state job after retirement. It would encompass retirees from all six of the state’s defined benefit retirement pension plans — public employees, police and fire, teachers, state police, judges, and college professors.
   Common sense and fairness dictate that when retired state workers go back to work at a state, county or municipal job they should not receive retirement benefits while working.
   With the state teetering on bankruptcy and with legions of people out of work in New Jersey, those collecting a state pension should step aside and give others the chance at gainful employment with the state.
   When government employees receive a state pension and wages at the same time, it also affects taxpayers. In the end, we pay the freight for double dippers both coming and going.