Feb 18, 2007
Go to prison, collect some benefit cash from the state
Scott Sexton - Winston-Salem Journal

It must be nice to be a state legislator and have a state retirement to count on. It's even better if it's partly paid for by the state, and better still if you can collect checks even if you're cooling your heels in a prison cell. 
 
Sounds crazy, doesn't it? 
 
Yet that's exactly the situation that a veritable conga line of convicted and corrupt state legislators find themselves in today. 
 
The scorecard reads like this: 
• Jim Black, Democrat of Mecklenburg County, the former speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives. Pleads guilty in federal court Thursday to a public-corruption felony. Immediately eligible to start collecting $3,444.19 a month in retirement checks. 
 
• Mike Decker, Republican/Democrat/Republican of Forsyth County. Pleads guilty in federal court Aug. 1, 2006, to taking a $50,000 bribe to switch parties and help keep a certain speaker of the House in power. Receiving a gross monthly benefit of $1,236.06 from the Legislative Retirement System and an additional $82.61 from the Teachers and State Employees Retirement System. 
 
• Frank Ballance, Democrat of Warren County and former member of U.S. Congress. Convicted in 2005 of directing tax money into his nonprofit corporation for personal use. Collecting a gross monthly benefit of $1,476.60 from the Legislative Retirement System. His check is subject to garnishment. 
 
In case you're not so good with math, that's $74,873.52 a year - partly financed by you - being sent to crooks. 
 
'That's a travesty' 
For the record, Ballance is pulling federal time right now. He was sentenced to four years in prison after entering his guilty plea in October 2005. 
 
Decker originally was scheduled to be sentenced in November, but that was delayed. According to his original plea agreement, he will spend up to five years in a federal prison. 
 
Black, after his guilty plea last week, is scheduled to be sentenced May 14. The range of his time behind bars has yet to be determined - federal prosecutors and his attorney didn't set any parameters on paper - but the recommended maximum is 10 years. 
 
And all the while, these guys will be collecting checks. 
 
According to the Legislative Retirement System handbook, the retirement plan works like most others: State legislators can contribute 7 percent of their annual salaries (average $20,500) to the fund, and the state (you) kicks in with a yearly contribution equal to 3.8 percent of all members' annual salaries - about $132,430, into the pool. 
The formula for drawing out is complicated, but it is based on how long someone stays in the legislature and is capped at 75 percent of someone's highest annual salary.  
 
In plain English, that means that the longest-serving of legislators (Decker clocked 20 years) will max out between $1,200 and $1,500 a month. 
 
That kind of coin will buy a lot of soap and candy at the prison canteen. 
 
"I think that's a travesty," said John Woods, 81, an Ashe County resident who keeps a close watch on elected officials. "We've all donated money to whomever to help them get elected, and pay them to do the job. And then when they screw up, we continue to pay them retirement." 
 
Restoring confidence 
If state Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, gets his way, the practice will end. Berger, the Senate's minority leader, plans to file a bill Monday that would ban those convicted of public corruption from collecting on retirements. 
 
The downside is that Berger's bill, if approved, won't be retroactive. "But we can enact legislation for those who become vested henceforth," Berger said. 
 
The U.S. House passed a similar bill last month 431-0, so Berger hopes that his bill will sail through in Raleigh. 
 
"When people see these stories about accepting cash in bathrooms or to vote a certain way ... it confirms their worst suspicions about public officials and fuels their worst perceptions," he said. "I hope we'd want to take a step to restore public confidence." 
 
Taking a bite out of a crook's wallet by cutting off retirement checks is a good start.