The Maryland Public Policy Institute
MPPI IN THE NEWS
MARCH 18, 2010
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A town hall forum concerning runaway government funding from taxpayers' pockets for pensions for Baltimore County Council members, the County Executive and others brought about 80 people to the Towson Library meeting room on March 15.
Panelists and moderators represented Americans For Prosperity, a non-partisan national advocacy group for limited government. Their goal is to get citizens to insist that present and future elected officials commit to working for the people, not just for themselves - to stop the financial hemorrhaging.
As has been well publicized elsewhere, Councilman Vince Gardina, D-5, will walk away at age 53 with an annual lifetime pension of $54,000 for his five terms, 20 years of part-time government service. Councilmen Joseph Bartenfelder, D-6, and Kevin Kamenetz will walk away with $48,000. If either of them wins the county executive race in November, that one will walk away with $108,000 per year.
Baltimore County Americans for Prosperity co-chair Steve Bailey mentioned that Kamenetz put in a bill to reduce the pensions to 60 percent of pay, but the provision would only apply to those who will be serving on the County Council in the future. It passed. Bartenfelder then presented a bill to cap pensions on existing council members to 60 percent. Only one person voted for it.
"Johnny O. [John Olszewski, Sr., D-7] endorsed Kevin for county executive. It smells to high heaven," said Bailey. "Kevin called and said, 'I wish you wouldn't talk about it.' He said he is sacrificing and could make more money in private practice," Bailey added.
County Executive Jim Smith will collect $150,000 per year when his service terminates. The figure includes pensions from when he was a council member for seven years and a circuit court judge for approximately 15 years. If he wins the race for state senate in November, he will be quadruple-dipping at taxpayer expense. Panelist Marta Mossburg of the Maryland Public Policy Institute tried to learn how many elected officials in Maryland were double-dipping or more. She was told the information would not be made public.
Another generally hidden item was brought forth by panelist Wayne Skinner, Towson county councilman from 1998 -2002. "A commission decides on the amount of pensions for county officials. The members are appointed by the County Executive except one, who is from a union." In addition to the pension, county council members get health care benefits and a county car for their part time job. "I sure enjoyed not having to pay for gas while traveling on county business, and the tire replacements," Skinner observed.
Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger, D-2, is on track to receive $264,000 annually, thanks to taxpayer largesse. This amount includes accruals from his county council and county executive service.
The private sector is faltering by comparison. Panelist and actuary Steve Bourg noted that a private sector employee pension in a 401K is 10 times less than that of a government employee. Private sector employees must wait until age 65, while for a government employee, the pension starts with service. Only five percent of Maryland private sector employers have not frozen pensions. Only 11 percent of part-time employees get benefits. Of these, 34 percent work for government. "It's not Wall Street; it's gold plated benefits for government," someone said.
A final question from the floor was, "Where is all this spending leading?" No one was able to give a definitive answer. The panelists relied heavily on number crunching to back up their facts. For those who are so inclined and anyone else, the meeting will be shown on You-Tube sometime in the future. For information, Google "Americans for Prosperity Maryland."
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