BUFFALO, N.Y. — Since last year, more than five-hundred people have gotten permission from the state to double dip on public pensions and their salaries from state or local governments.
Your tax dollars are paying for it.
If you are a government retiree under 65 getting a full pension, and want to go back and work for the state or a local government, you have to get a waiver if the job pays more than $30,000 a year. The NYS Senate voted Wednesday to raise that amount to $35,000 which would open the door for more people to double dip without a waiver. That bill is in committee in the Assembly.
The SeeThroughNY online database just added new information about the hundreds of people who have requested waivers since 2015. The database includes more than 83-hundred requests going back several years. Sixty-one requests are from Erie County employees and 13 come from Niagara County employees.
Some people are listed more than once because once a request is granted, typically it’s good for two years.
Once someone turns 65, they no longer need special permission to collect the paycheck and pension at the same time.
One of the highest, if not the highest paid employee, from Western New York is University at Buffalo Police Chief Gerald Schoenle. He has been authorized from 2006 through this year to make more than $132,000 a year at UB while collecting a pension of $39,000 from his work for the Buffalo Police Department before he retired.
The Empire Center, an independent think-tank based in Albany, sponsors SeeThroughNY.
© 2016 WGRZ
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