Golden Parachutes and Politicians

The following letter from Deedee Vaughters appeared in the Aiken Standard on September 2. As usual Deedee made some excellent points and we must keep them in mind in November when we go to the polls.. Our career politicians do not serve us well. The very idea that part time legislators should have a pension upon retirement is absurd. We should have citizen representatives not careerists.


"Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Aiken Republican Club luncheon and hearing Comptroller General, Richard Eckstrom speak. Comptroller General Eckstrom gave a rousing speech educating those present on many of the issues that South Carolinians face with regards to the state budget and the economic outlook for the future. I was disturbed to hear during Comptroller General Eckstrom’s address that the state continues to have major issues with regards to unfunded liabilities in the state retirement plan that currently exceed $11 billion.

Equally as disturbing was a recent article by Rick Brundrett, investigative reporter for the South Carolina Policy Council. According to Mr. Brundrett’s research, our state legislators earn an average of $19,605 in gross retirement benefits per year. He cites the July figures from the state retirement system as his source. From the same source Mr. Brundrett was able to determine that the total paid in benefits for all retired legislators annually is $6.5 million. The amount paid since the plans inception in 1966 is $89 million.
The amazing thing here is that the annual paid per year to retired legislators is more than the average amount paid to retired teachers and police officers. Interestingly, being a legislator is a part time job with the legislature meeting 3 days a week from January to June. This design was to ensure that legislators could remain gainfully employed while serving. In other words, being a legislator is not supposed to be a full time job or a career.
This begs the question, how does this happen? How do part-time legislators earn more in retirement than full-time state employees? The answer is actually quite simple. It happens when politicians are allowed to vote themselves benefits and salary increases with a voice vote. The vote is therefore not recorded leaving the public without the ability to hold them individually accountable. This is unacceptable.
Currently 9 states no longer offer retirement benefits to legislators. Rhode Island is one of the 9 states and also has a January to June legislative session.
The unfunded liabilities for the State of South Carolina should be of major concern to all South Carolinians. If the General Assembly continues to fail to fund the state retirement plan realistically, then an $11 billion unfunded liability with a 30 year shortfall is expected. Our legislators have only added to the problem with their own increasing retirement benefits rather than working to solve the issue. Each legislative session ends without the issue being addressed. Are they hoping it will go away or that it will eventually become the next politician’s problem? Are they counting on the fact that we are unaware of how dire the situation is?
It is time that we hold our elected officials responsible. On the record voting is a must in order to achieve fully transparent and accountable government. Politicians who are looking at being elected as a career opportunity and a way to further their own personal interests must go. It is obvious that many of our elected officials have lost sight of the fact that government should be of the people, by the people and for the people. Cushy retirement plans for legislators illustrate how far removed our state government has gotten from the people they claim to serve.

The writer is a board member for the South Carolina Policy Council. She and her husband own a small business in downtown Aiken.

South Carolina Policy Council September 7th Rally in the Alley

The Aiken Standard published a good report on the rally but it is not easily available on the Aiken Standard website so I have posted it here.If you have not read it please take the time to do so.

 Aiken Standard Article September 8, 2010   

I had the opportunity to speak with Senator Tom Davis and Representative Ralph Norman after the rally. Both are dynamic speakers and importantly they believe in term limits. They are committed to taking on the entrenched dysfunctional system that gives too little power to the Governor and way too much to the legislature. We need to return to the idea of citizen legislators rather than career politicians!!!!

In 2004 Governor Sanford tried to rein in government growth after detailed review of their proposed budget which embodied 20% growth.  He issued vetoes on 107 line items which State agencies said they could do without. In an egregious display of arrogance and power of the legislative leaders the vetoes were overridden by unrecorded voice votes in 53 minutes! At the rally Senator Davis said that by 2008 the government had grown by 45 percent.

The only way we will ever get SC budgets under control is remove legislative leaders who use their power of control over committee assignments to threaten Senators and Representatives. A recent example of this abuse of power was SC House leader Bobbie Harrell taking important committee assignments away from Nikki Haley because she insisted upon pushing legislation that would require all house votes to be recorded.  We heard at the rally that this approach of punishing those who do not support the leadership is standard operating procedure in Columbia.  This means that representatives whom we send to Columbia end up having more incentive to side with the leadership there than to represent our interests.   Both Rep. Norman and Sen. Davis made this clear.

There will a leadership showdown in November following the general election. Representative Ralph Norman is campaigning to replace Bobbie Harrell as Leader of the House. The Republican members will caucus to elect its leadership for the new term. The current rules allow the “election” to be held by an open voice vote instead of a secret ballot. This means that Bobbie Harrell can punish anyone who does not support him and therefore he is assured of enough votes to be elected again. The only way to remedy the situation is for the caucus to agree to a secret ballot which is the very essence of democracy. Understandably Harrell opposes this idea as he knows that he might well lose.

It is ironic that Harrell insists on unrecorded votes on issues important to us, so that the votes of our representatives are invisible to us, and we the interested parties cannot hold our representatives accountable.  When his interest is at stake and he is now the interested party, he insists on a vote that should be secret but is visible to him so that he can dole out the rewards and punishments.   In order to give democracy a chance it is essential that all the members of the Aiken Delegation stand together and demand a secret vote. Our representatives should be made to understand how strongly you feel about the issue!