Stan Geiger

Public Pensions Need to Go

Public pensions are one of the greatest boils on the butt of society. The McCarville Report Online offers yet another example.

According to Mike:

Disgraced former Senator Gene Stipe, now a convicted felon, gets to keep his $7,042 monthly state retirement checks, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled today.

The court upheld a district judge's ruling that Stipe is entitled to the sum, his full retirement benefit based on his years of service in the Legislature.

The board of the Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System had appealed an Oklahoma County judge's decision reinstating Stipe's full benefits. The OPERS had reduced Stipe's pension to about $1,600 a month after he pleaded guilty to illegally funneling money into a 1998 congressional campaign.

Stipe argued his pension should not have been cut because his plea did not relate to his duties as a legislator.

Stipe worked part-time for the state, yet he is qualified for an $84,504 per year pension. That's absurd.

Stipe, clearly, was a dirty part-time employee of the state. Yet he gets his full pension anyway, because the Oklahoma Supreme Court---comprised, by the way, of public employees---says he gets it. That's absurd.

There is only one solution to this problem: public pensions must be abolished. We have to take the keys to the hen house away from the foxes.

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