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Richard Piatt Reporting Dozens of state employees have a unique salary deal: retirement benefits and full time employee benefits.
Lawmakers have had their eye on this so-called 'double dipping' loophole.
The state audit report outlines both the problem and the solution.
The audit shows the 'post retirement re-employment' issue exists in three departments: Corrections, Public safety, and Alcohol Beverage Control.
In general terms, it works like this: An employee works for the state 20 years, then retires. After a six-month waiting period they are re-hired for their same job. This time, though, they collect a full-time salary with benefits, as well as their state retirement benefits.
Of the more than 3-thousand state employees who retired between 1999 and June of this year, the audit shows 593 returned to work within state government.
The audit goes on to point out that an employee making 50-thousand dollars a year who retires after 20 years of work and then returns to work, costs the retirement system 67% more than if they had worked 30 years continuously.
The information on this 'double dipping' is enough to raise the eyebrows in the Legislature.
Rep. Ralph Becker (D), House Minority Leader: "I don't feel like we want to provide a big financial benefit to the retiring employee, public employee."
At the Department of Alcohol Beverage Control there were 12 employees who retired then came back recently. The head of the Department, Ken Wynn, points out the practice isn't illegal, that the employees play an important role.
Ken Wynn, Department of Alcohol Beverage Control: "Nobody was guaranteed to be hired back. We went through the interview process and looked into it and they were the best qualified. So they were hired back."
The audit report calls the so-called double dipping problem as relatively minor in the overall scheme of things. But in the future it could end up being very expensive. For that reason, the chance of legislation to address this issue in the upcoming session is high
