Hiring double-dippers can be double-edged
Suffolk County Executive Edward Romaine has hired several officials who, like him, draw six-figure salaries on top of their pensions. Credit: Tom Lambui
It’s a longtime fact of public life in New York that retirees from government jobs sometimes return to the public payroll as active employees. Given the required approvals, they can collect both pensions and salaries — thus putting the double in the double-dip.
Rules that apply to double-dipping are long-lived and long-discussed.
Instinctively, taxpayers have never liked the looks of this. First a longtime public employee earns a salary, then a pension, and then another salary. For better or worse, it makes retirement for some less than permanent. Does the public benefit from the double-dipper returning to the payroll? It depends on the individual who does the dipping.
On the downside, a bad double-dip hiring might add up to nothing more than a subsidized patronage favor for a seasoned party loyalist. On the upside, a double-dipper might be so experienced, knowledgeable and well-regarded that they stand out as the best choice to meet the demands of the job.
This is the split screen through which to view several of Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine’s top picks for his still-new administration. Romaine, who campaigned on experience and his record, is choosing to keep both his $116,000 pension for many years in prior elected jobs and his $241,000 salary for the top elected county post.
As Newsday recently reported, at least 10 of his appointees are collecting state pensions on top of six-figure salaries. Undoubtedly, some county departments greatly need experienced supervision — like Information Technology, due to the 2022 cybersecurity attack, and Social Services, which drew fire over the 2020 Thomas Valva child abuse case.
In many jurisdictions, double-dipping seems to be accepted and approved habitually and with the most minimal screening. A number of Romaine’s hires have been over 65. Before that age, they’d need a special authorization to double-dip if they collect more than $35,000 annually on the job in question.
The required waivers to allow a retiree to be hired while collecting a pension, usually for a two-year period, are commonly granted for various positions statewide. Offices like the state Civil Service Commission approve these waivers on certain conditions, including that a full search for the best candidate was conducted. But requests for what are known as Section 211 waivers have not been known in government circles to be judged by a rigorous bar for approval.
While it may be intuitive or comfortable for a top executive to put together a team he or she knows and trusts, the danger is that it can descend into cronyism — again, depending on the integrity of those involved. The practice of hiring pensioners should be used smartly and sparingly.
If there are too many on the payroll, hiring double-dippers can keep key positions from younger talent who might offer fresh perspectives and new ideas. Hopefully, Romaine and his peers in other jurisdictions keep this in mind going forward.
MEMBERS OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD are experienced journalists who offer reasoned opinions, based on facts, to encourage informed debate about the issues facing our community.
