{"id":6887,"date":"2012-11-20T06:29:36","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T11:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=6887"},"modified":"2012-11-20T08:51:27","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T13:51:27","slug":"another-north-country-lawmakers-double-dips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2012\/11\/20\/another-north-country-lawmakers-double-dips\/","title":{"rendered":"Another North Country lawmakers double dips"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Assemblywoman Janet Duprey. Photo: Mark Kurtz<\/p><\/div>\n

During this year’s election campaign, Assemblywoman Janet Duprey drew heavy fire from opponents for “double dipping.”\u00a0 This is the long-established practice in New York’s legislature of drawing a retirement pension, while also taking home a sizable paycheck for work as a member of the Assembly or state Senate.<\/p>\n

Conservative Doug Hoffman — who endorsed one of Duprey’s opponents — blasted the double payments.\u00a0 This from a story by Stephen Bartlett\u00a0in Denpub<\/a>s: \u00a0\u201cShe is an elected representative and is supposed to be a role model,\u201d said Hoffmann, who admitted she is doing nothing against the law, referring to it as a \u201cloop hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I say, this isn’t uncommon for lawmakers and now the Albany Times-Union <\/a>is reporting that Hugh Farley, the state Senator who represents the southern Adirondacks, will also begin receiving two checks in the mail every month.\u00a0 According to the newspaper, Farley — who is 80 years old — receives more than $90,000 for his work as a legislator each year, and will now also receive roughly $52,000 a year in pension payments<\/p>\n

This activity has been criticized as unfair to taxpayers, but Farley said it\u2019s the only way he can guarantee retirement income for his wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took the option that my wife will get the same amount, should I pass away,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s unfair in the law that if you die in service, your spouse doesn\u2019t get your pension.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s important to note that this is a bipartisan issue.\u00a0 Duprey and Farley are Republicans, but Democrats also double-dip.\u00a0 So what do you think?\u00a0 Is this a fair pay-out for public workers who have \u00a0spent decades in public service?\u00a0 Is it appropriate that a state employee can also qualify as “retired” and thereby receive a pension?\u00a0 And does the texture of this change now that New York state is in a tight economic crisis?\u00a0 As always, your comments welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During this year’s election campaign, Assemblywoman Janet Duprey drew heavy fire from opponents for “double […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[22,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6887"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6889,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6887\/revisions\/6889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}