Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio is asking the Phoenix taxpayers to help him “stop the insanity” of massive payouts to government employees being paid for by a regressive food tax.
DiCiccio wrote supporters that the employees are getting “golden parachutes ranging from tens of thousands of dollars to $100,000 or more. Ten people got close to $1 million and then started their pension.”
“Phoenix staff confirmed Tuesday in the proposed budget for 2013-14, that there are $52 million in raises and bonuses – including pay increases from last year,” wrote DeCiccio. “It is unconscionable that government employees get these pay raises, huge payouts at retirement, Cadillac benefits and then get taken care of for life while the public suffers in this economy.”
DeCiccio says that the public has done their “fair share and you and your family have sacrificed enough.”
He charges that Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton “refuses to follow through on his word to repeal the food tax and keep his word to stop these massive payouts. Payouts to the same union bosses that got him elected and that still run city hall.”
DeCiccio is outraged at reports that the city employees are engaging in pension spiking. Pension spiking involves allowing employees to use pay for unused vacation and sick leave to artificially boost their pensions.
Stanton had opposed the practice during his campaign and now seems to have had a change of heart, and little heart for families who are struggling to feed their kids.
According to Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts, “Rank-and-file police and firefighters enjoy a modest increase in their retirement checks as a result of pension spiking. But those in the higher echelons are cashing in eye popping amounts of unused leave, allowing them to earn more in retirement than they ever did while working – courtesy of Phoenix taxpayers.”
Roberts writes:
“City employees are given astonishing amounts of leave time – an entry-level Phoenix worker gets 40.5 days off a year – and when they don’t use it all, they can get paid for a portion of it when they depart.
That cashout, along with any deferred compensation, is then counted as part of the salary upon which their pension is calculated.
Last year, the city decided that sick leave accrued after July 2012 can no longer be used to boost the pensions of civilian employees, though unused vacation and pre-2012 sick leave will still be used to inflate pension pay.” To read the rest of the article, click here.