Former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who was ousted this month after he was convicted of felony corruption, filed for retirement on Dec. 22, the state comptroller’s office confirmed on Tuesday.
Skelos, a Long Island Republican, will have an effective retirement date of Jan. 2, 2016. Skelos first entered the state retirement system on June 29, 1973, putting him in Tier I.
The comptroller’s office did not provide an estimate for what Skelos’s annual pension claim will be, but one estimate from the Empire Center for New York State Policy projected the figure would exceed more than $95,000 a year.
Skelos’s former counterpart in the legislative leadership, ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, submitted his retirement papers a day after he was found guilty on charges of fraud, bribery and extortion.
Skelos was found guilty of using his official powers to aid his son’s business interests.
In the past, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has sought to claw back the pensions of those convicted of public corruption.
A constitutional amendment designed to block public officials convicted of corruption of receiving a pension has stalled in the Legislature.
© 2015 Time Warner Cable News
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