By Beaumont Enterprise Editorial Staff | January 19, 2013
You can file this one under legislation that really shouldn’t have to be filed: State Rep. Chris Turner, a Grand Prairie Democrat, has introduced a bill that would prohibit newly elected state officials from collecting a pension from one public job and a salary from another at the same time.
The top example here is, ironically, the state’s top official. Gov. Rick Perry collects a pension of $92,000 per year at the same time he is being paid $133,000 per year for serving as governor.
Perry’s pension comes from his five years in the U.S. Air Force and 20 years as a state representative, ag commissioner and lieutenant governor.
Yet Perry never really “retired” in that last post, lieutenant governor. He just shifted to governor when George W. Bush became president.
Most Texans understand that a pension is collected after you quit working, not while you’re still putting in 40 hours. This bill would finally clarify that.
