The Double Dip

Student fights state double-dipping
Montgomery native wants loophole cut
By John Sullivan
Times Herald-Record
Published: 2:00 AM - 02/21/11
Montgomery — With recent news of double-dipping state legislators igniting reader anger in newspaper opinion pages and elsewhere, Colin Schmitt half-expected a revolution in state government.

But no such upheaval has come among the majority of rank-and-file state Senate and Assembly members, so Schmitt has decided to lead the way on his own.

"Maybe sometimes a public outcry is enough, but sometimes you need continuous pressure," Schmitt said about his grass-roots campaign to eliminate a loophole that allows certain elected officials to earn pensions as well as full salaries.

The campaign — "Stop NY Double Dip" — is a special project of Schmitt's political action committee, New Dawn, formed in May to help a new generation of leaders take office.

Schmitt, a Montgomery native who became a legislative aide for Assemblywoman Annie Rabbitt, R-C-Greenwood Lake, when he was just 14, hopes to be among those who fill a representative position one day, he said.

He launched stopnydoubledip.com last week to promote a petition drive to close the loophole allowing elected state officials serving before 1995 to concurrently collect their pension and full salary.

Schmitt would also urge creating a retroactive change requiring elected leaders collecting both incomes to choose one or the other.

He would also support a pending bill sponsored by state Sen. Greg Ball and Assemblyman Mike Fitzpatrick to remove politicians from the pension system and move them to 401(k) plans.

State legislators, such as Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun, R-C-Blooming Grove, and Sen. Bill Larkin, R-C-New Windsor, collect both pension and salary. They contend they are utilizing a benefit available to all state employees.

The payment of pensions in addition to salaries is considered a necessary evil in the public sector, as agencies compete for talent with private-sector jobs that pay a lot more, acknowledge some public policy experts.

But the perception of unfairness is hard to argue with.

"I've talked to a lot of people, who are struggling, and seeing someone who can just snap their fingers to get additional benefits without having to work a second job or anything is really disheartening," said Schmitt, a junior studying politics at The Catholic University of America in Washington.

There are currently 16 members of the state Senate and 46 members of the state Assembly eligible to collect pensions and salaries at the same time, according to Schmitt's research.

"If all those 62 cashed in, it would cost the state nearly $3.5 million a year," he said.

Schmitt plans to spend a good part of his non-study time collecting signatures for his campaign, he said. Saturday, going door to door in the Village of Montgomery, he collected some 50-55 signatures, adding to a list of some 250 responses he's gotten to his website, he said.

"Whether I'm the lone voice standing in the field or not, I'll be talking about this and kicking dirt about it until the next state election in 2012," he said.