State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill backed down in 2004 from a push to curb retirement abuses by lawmakers, after top legislative leaders on Beacon Hill privately objected to the changes, Cahill said.
Cahill said he received a visit from Representative John Rogers, House Ways and Means chairman, who was sent by House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi to tell him to abandon his quest to eliminate termination pensions for lawmakers.
Is it just me, or does this have a Godfather feeling to it?
Termination pensions allow legislators and other elected officials to collect early, enhanced retirement benefits if they are voted out of office. The law has also been stretched by the state Retirement Board to allow lawmakers who step down voluntarily to get the special lifetime benefit, equivalent to one-third of their salary.
Translation: it's legalized looting.
Sending Rogers, whose Ways and Mean Committee was in charge of setting the state budget, was a not-so-subtle warning of possible financial consequences. At the time, Cahill was seeking additional money for the operations and staff at the state Lottery.
Representative Ronald Mariano, whose political ties to Cahill are rooted in their home city of Quincy, denied that he or Rogers conveyed any warnings to Cahill that his budget would face cutbacks if he did not back off his threat to end their pension perk.
But OUR LEGISLATORS are WORKING for YOU, Bay-Stater!!!!
Want another bowl of s***?
"We tried to get him to see the wisdom," Mariano said. "We just laid out our position, saying to him, you have a lot of big salaries over here and the legislators who are only making $50,000 or $60,000 a year need those benefits."
Oh, poor babies!!! They are lucky they have jobs, if not their heads!!!
And yeah, does this ever have an ORGANIZED CRIME FEEL!!
Rogers did not return a call seeking comment. DiMasi could not be reached for comment.
Above it all and collecting pensions, aren't they?
See: DiMasi's Leftovers
The message was clearly heard. Cahill quickly abandoned the plan to end lawmakers' use of termination pensions. He said yesterday that Rogers and Mariano convinced him of the political realities and that the Senate was also lined up against the changes. In fact, Cahill said, he and his staff could not find one lawmaker to file the bill on his behalf.
I think they need a little convincing from us:
"I didn't think of it as intimidation in terms of the budget," Cahill said in an interview yesterday. "They [Rogers and Mariano] came down as friends to tell me it was not going anywhere and that it would tick off everyone in the building. I appreciated it."
That's the same answer you give the mob when they pay you a "visit."--more--"
