Local governments face pension scrutiny

We here at NCPR and the In Box have been poking at the “problem” of New York state’s vast and vastly expensive local government system.

The Empire state has far more local government entities than most comparably sized states around the country, most of them levying taxes, hiring employees and providing services.

The obvious questions: are there two many of these entities? And are they spending our money wisely?

New York’s Comptroller, Tom DiNapoli, has opened a new probe into the way local governments are handing out pensions.

Pension abuse became an issue in the North Country last year, when DiNapoli’s office accused the Olympic Regional Development Authority of allowing an attorney to draw inappropriate retirement benefits.

This from the Adirondack Daily Enterprise:

The state Olympic Regional Development Authority’s lawyer has been wrongly receiving retirement benefits, according to an audit released Monday by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

The lawyer, John Cansdale, may also have shortchanged his hours in his full-time job as executive director of the state Racing and Wagering Board, for which he received retirement benefits on top of those ORDA gave him.

The current inquiry focuses not on state agencies, but on thousands of local government entities that make use of the state’s retirement pension. This from the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.

The move comes amid a state probe into fraud and abuse of the state’s $117 billion pension fundand wide discrepancies among local governments as to who receives full- or part-time pension credits.

The pension fund, one of the largest in the country, provides benefits to state and local government workers outside New York City.

If pension funds are being misused, taxpayers have to make up the difference because they contribute to public workers’ retirement benefits.

I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of this kind of review, as state and local budgets tighten.

And we may also see legislative action to fix the number of state workers who are drawing full pensions while still employed, often by a government agency.

Does it really make sense to pay retirement to people who are still on the payroll?