Jim Hood is right. Or at least he is more correct than Mississippi’s Public Employees’ Retirement System on the topic of whether former state employees should continue to be paid benefits if they serve in the state Legislature.
The staff for Hood, the attorney general who is running for governor next year, have issued a non-binding opinion saying that retirees can continue to collect their state retirement money if they hold a part-time government job, including being a member of the Legislature.
The opinion contradicts a PERS regulation that considers elective offices full-time jobs, which means a retiree cannot get benefits while holding such a position.
It may take a court test to produce a definitive ruling, but the debate ought to lean toward eliminating any penalty on state retirees who are thinking about public office.
For example, PERS rules do not withhold payments to a state retiree who is holding a local elected office. If that’s OK, why isn’t a seat in the Legislature?
Any conflict-of-interest argument is a stretch. Lawmakers certainly have some degree of control over state money, but not nearly as much over PERS and the way it distributes its assets. Besides, since lawmakers are enrolled in the state retirement system, there is no more conflict for those already drawing the benefit than there is for those who will draw it in the future.
As for the PERS regulations that say a legislative job is a full-time position, that flies in the face of reality. Being a member of the Legislature is far from a full-time work — in terms of both hours spent on the job and the pay for it — with the possible exception of a few leadership posts.
When lawmakers are in session, they regularly work 40 hours per week or more, which is how the law defines a full-time job. But they have few legislative duties during the other eight or nine months of the year, other than listening to constituents.
More to the point, virtually all lawmakers of a working age have another full-time job that often pays a lot more than their work in the Capitol. This would not be the case if legislating were full-time work.
There is one more interesting aspect of this opinion, and that’s the obvious impact it could have on the 2019 legislative elections. It’s no surprise that this could work to the benefit of Hood, the only Democrat who has won a statewide election in recent years and is poised for a matchup against Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves.
There are about 320,000 retired state employees receiving PERS benefits. If just a fraction of 1 percent of this group is interested in running for the Legislature next year, you’re talking about a few hundred potential candidates. These would be people who have experience in state government — and presumably would have ideas on how to run things.
The director of a state education advocacy group has already sent out an email to supporters, noting that teachers in other states won a number of legislative elections in 2018, and asking, “Do you know a retired educator who might consider running for office?” Mississippi may have an answer soon.
