Double-dipping is a common practice among politicians, but Joe Pitts is getting shellacked in the press for his especially generous pension payments:
You have sent them to Congress and you pay them $174,000 a year.
Rep. Joe Pitts
But for a handful of men and women who used to be state lawmakers, you're also paying their pensions even though they have not yet retired.
At $15,441 per year, Republican Congressmen Jim Gerlach and Charlie Dent, at $16,439 per year, are both cashing in on their state pensions.
Democrat, and gubernatorial candidate, Allyson Schwartz is also collecting $18,340 a year in state pension benefits.
And then there's Republican Joe Pitts of Lancaster. He's getting a state pension of $90,834 per year -- on top of his Congressional salary of $174,000.
"I's outrageous," said Eric Epstein of Rock the Capital, a government watchdog group in Harrisburg. "Is it legal? Yeah. It is wrong? Yes, it's definitely wrong."
It's wrong, critics say, that state legislators can collect their pensions at age 50 while most public employees must wait until they're 62 or 65 for full retirement. The average state worker retiree collects a pension of just over $25,000 a year. ...
"It's completely disingenuous," said Leo Knepper of Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania, a right-leaning group that revels in outing supposed fiscal conservatives. Knepper says Pitts, and other GOP member across the nation, are not actually financially conservative.
"There are a lot of Republicans who will claim to be conservative and point to the fact that they're pro-life or pro-second amendment. But you better not leave the good silverware in the room with them because they're spending America broke, and the state broke, for that matter." ...
State Representative Glen Grell (R-Cumberland) is working on pension reform this summer and concedes the current system, which allows legislators to retire earlier than other public employees, is unfair. He would like to see lawmakers in the same class as everyone else.
"What's good for a custodial worker at a school district should be good enough for a state legislator, or a judge, or an executive office official," he said.
