I’ve had dozens of posts about overpaid bureaucrats. Indeed, I’ve largely stopped blogging about the topic because it is so depressing to constantly be reminded about how a privileged class of people is manipulating the system to coercively obtain undeserved compensation from their less-fortunate neighbors.
But every so often I see a story which cries out for attention. Bloomberg has a report about a double-dipping bureaucrat who has managed to snag a position providing more than $200K per year while simultaneously ripping off taxpayers for a pension of more than $300K per year.
In a perverse way, I admire Mr. Hunderfund. I never would have thought a bureaucrat could figure out how to scam taxpayers for more than half a million dollars in one year. And for a job that probably shouldn’t even exist.
James Hunderfund, who earns at least $225,000 a year as a school superintendent on Long Island, is also entitled to a $316,245 annual pension from a previous administrative post, according to a compilation of pension data by the Empire Center for New York State Policy. Hunderfund retired in 2006 as superintendent of the Commack school district, also on Long Island. His current contract with Malverne stipulates that he receive an annual salary of no less than $225,000 through June 30, according to Empire’s report, which used a database from the New York State Teachers Retirement System.
The story also notes that there are more than 1,000 other edu-crats who are getting six-figure retirement packages.
The only other issue to address is whether we should be more upset by Mr. Hunderfund’s bloated salary of his obscene pension.
I think the pension is more outrageous, but I’m open to other opinions. Any thoughts?
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By the end of the second paragraph, as soon as I saw those numbers, I knew exactly who this story was about. Newsday ran a similar piece about two years ago. (Commack is the district just to the east of where I live; we also had a superintendent who retired in 2006, and his pension is number five on the Empire Center’s list.)
Hunderfund began his career in the New York public schools in 1969. That qualifies him for a “Tier 1” pension, meaning he could retire at 55 with a full pension, the pension was not capped, he was not required to contribute, and could liberally apply overtime and other allowances. (Hunderfund retired from Commack in 2006, at age 61).
If a retiree takes another public job, he is limited to $30,000 salary – but only until the calendar year in which he turns 65. At that time, the new employer can pay whatever it chooses, as Malverne has chosen to do.
And let’s not forget: the New York Constitution stipulates that pension benefits cannot be “diminished or impaired.” For ANY reason. Another former Long Island superintendent who served prison time for stealing millions from his district collects a pension of nearly $175,000.
Oh, don’t worry, if he’s already collecting on a pension, he’s probably pretty old, meaning he’ll be out of that $225,000/year job soon enough…
So he can then collect a total pension of $632,000 for doing *absolutely* nothing.
In the UK it’s the opposite way round: if a politician claims for a £1.20 light bulb they have to make a groveling apology and pay the money back with interest, but if you scam £000,000s on second home mortgages it’s fine.