There has never been an acronym that so accurately describes its subject as SLRP - Special Legislative Retirement Plan. It's a declaration by the legislature that states our elected solons are indeed better than the rest of us. The legislature created SLRP to give themselves extra retirement pay not available to other state employees. Call it time and a half pay for doing half of the work- if that much. The program currently holds $17.2 million in assets.
The current actuarial report provides more information about SLRP:
Market Value: $17.2 million
Funding level: 78.8%
Active members: 174
Retirees: 205 Average salary of active members: $39,817
Benefits paid: $1.397 million
Average benefit: $6,283
Average monthly benefit: $434
Average age: 71.9 years old
Contributions: $734,000
Unfunded liability: $4.6 million
Assumed rate of return: 7.75%
COLA: 3%
SLRP is a special retirement program created in 1989 just for legislators, giving them extra retirement pay in addition to the regular retirement they receive as members of PERS. Section 25-11-301 of the Mississippi Code states:
There is hereby established and placed under the management of the Board of Trustees of the Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi a supplemental legislative retirement plan for the purpose of providing supplemental retirement allowances and other benefits under the provisions of this article for elected members of the State Legislature and the President of the Senate and their beneficiaries. The retirement plan provided by this article shall go into operation on July 1, 1989, when contributions by members shall begin and benefits shall become payable. This retirement plan is designed to supplement and is in addition to the provisions of Section 25-11-1 et seq. Under the terms of this article, the members of the State Legislature and the President of the Senate shall retain all social security benefits under Article 1 and additional state retirement and disability benefits under Article 3 of the Public Employees' Retirement Law of 1952, as amended. This article is a supplement to those sections, and is designed to provide more benefits for members of the State Legislature and the President of the Senate by reason of their service to the state. Section 25-11-301Section 305 states SLRP shall include all members of the Legislature unless they choose to opt out of the program. Section 309 states "(1) The retirement allowance from the Supplemental Legislative Retirement Plan shall consist of fifty percent (50%) of an amount equal to the retirement allowance determined by creditable service"." In other words, SLRP gives legislators time and a half retirement pay in comparison to teachers, police officers, prosecutors, and other state employees.
Keep in mind that these guys already receive regular retirement benefits as members of PERS!!! SLRP is an extra payment they receive courtesy of our taxes.
You know the story. Money is tight. We have more needs than resources. Corrections officers are woefully underpaid. Medicaid is always running broke. The state parks never receive the attention they deserve. Meanwhile, these guys live in an alternate universe where they think they are more special than the state employees who serve and protect us. The ones who actually do the real work.
SLRP is one thing that everyone agrees on in the legislature. You don't hear one peep about this perk from those who are usually outraged at being outraged: the Black Caucus, McDanielites, the good gummint conservatives, and even the few remaining white Democrats. Bobby Moak didn't say one word about SLRP in all of the numerous press releases he sent to the media. Conservative or liberal leadership, it doesn't matter as the result stays the same: silence. Call it the Mississippi omerta. Don't expect any changes regardless of who gets elected. These guys love to SLRP.
Make no mistake, SLRP is not even 0.01% the size of PERS as PERS enjoys assets of $25 billion. However, SLRP sets a standard that treats the legislature as a favored few. The legislators don't deserve this extra pay and it's a stain on the government of Mississippi. The legislature should abolish SLRP and be treated the same as the other state employees who do know something about work and sacrifice. The only SLRPing the legislature should do is at Tico's. SLRP needs to go.
Legislators can opt out of SLRP. Ask your legislator if he has and if not, why not?
Earlier posts on SLRP
The _____ Still SLRP
The _____ are still SLRPing away
Still SLRPing
Legislators still SLRPing at the trough
WLBT covers SLRP last night
SLRP now has over $13 million
SLRP fund has over $11 million
WLBT covers SLRP
When do we stop the legislature from double-dipping?
SLRP: Supplemental Legislative Retirement Plan or Pigs SLRPing at a trough?
42 comments:
"Bobby Moak" Enough said!!!!!!!!
Haters gonna hate... Why don't you run for the legislature so you can benefit from such a fund?
Let them eat cake
How is the average salary $39,000 when legislative pay is only $10,000 a year. What am I missing?
This is one of the main reasons why legislators (both state & federal) are loathed by so many people. Frankly, I wouldn't piss on any of them if they were on fire.
SLRP is the mother of all hypocrisy - sunset it, pay the liability out and move on. This could be a success story for the legislature - especially democrats who are always complaining about "level" playing fields.
But I imagine the pigs at the SLRP trough won't give up a benefit they created for themselves by making excuses about all the sacrifices they make in service of the state. The legislature is made up of a bunch of scam artists who would be under investigation if a regular state employee did some of the shit they did...remember the fairgrounds/travel trailer scam?
Base salary of $10,000 for in-session work
$1,500 per month out-of-session ($13,500 most years)
$140 “per diem” for each day they spend in Jackson (including those who live in or near it)
Reimbursed for mileage at 54 cents a mile (except those in Hinds County)
All members allowed four days a month at the Capitol
Chairmen allowed six days, vice chairmen five days
Extra days must be approved
Hey, Pimpin' ain't easy!
Vote them out!
Obama and them liberals in the federal government always throwing away our tax dollars. Oh wait, this is state government ran by fiscal conservatives? Oh well...
Next thing you know, collusion between the capital and local city/county governments will begin. Oh wait. The State Ethics Committee has already allowed such unethical behavior to become the norm.
9:47 YESSSS !!! I would just watch too.
The Republicans scream and holler when the Democrats screw their people.
The Democrats scream and holler when the Republicans screw their people.
They are very quiet when they gang rape.
July 31, 2018 at 11:07 AM = Clueless
@ 10:22 - I bet no legislator would have the balls or integrity to introduce the bill to eliminate SLRP. They all talk a good game at the fair and on the campaign trail, but always seem to fall short on actually getting things done.
Hey legislators, I dare just ONE of you to introduce a bill that eliminates SLRP, let's see who really has the public's interest in mind. Come on --- let's see what you're made of!
Money is the mother's milk of politic$.
Are they automatically eligible or must they serve a certain number of years? Because us regular folk are on the 30 year plan.
Unbeknownst to me, I am a robot.
I say put them all, state and federal on Social Security retirement like all the rest of us. They are supposed to be public servants, not public rapists!
Thank goodness our state is controlled by conservative fiscally-minded Republicans. Otherwise, those liberal spend-it-all Democrats would be wanting things like a frontage road from their neighborhood to the shopping center. Whew!
10:36.....are you saying all of that counts towards PERS? If so, unbelievable
Any benefit goes to certain people but not to others. I've never been on food stamps, Medicaid, etc., but others have. Yet I still pay for it. I also have never been a recipient of the huge tax dodges that are legally available to some big businesses or rich individuals. But those tax dodges still exist for some.
I look at the additional legislative retirement in this context. I get no more alarmed about it than I do about the other many things that need to be cut or eliminated, or at least reformed.
@2:15pm Your apathy is noted, and a primary example in Mississippi as to why no one seems to know where the money's going. You're attitude? "Who cares?"
Legislators are allowed to count their per diem as part of their salary as a base
which jacks up their retirement benefits. As a former state employee required to
travel most weeks and at times for extended periods, my retirement would 50%
higher if my per diem counted towards my retirement. But ad you previously
stated, I was just a state employee.
Drain the Swamp.
Legislators pay breakdown is as follows:
$10,000 per session
$ 1,000 per month out of session
Every Legislator gets 4 days a month to come to Jackson
Every Chairman gets 6 days a month
Every Vice-Chairman 5 days a month
When they come to Jacckson, iit is calculated as this;
$172.00 substance(meals & travel)
$40.00 per diem.
Mileage @.54 or Federal rare
They borrowed the money to set the fund from Treasury's Abandoned Propert fund.
They usually borrow from this fund to balance the budget - they have not returned any money at all!
MMGA and drain that swamp.
Thank goodness our state is controlled by conservative fiscally-minded Republicans.
"[C]onservative fiscally-minded Republicans" were not the controlling party who enacted SLRP.
I like what 9:47 said....it’s actually one of my favorite things to say. Now, I think politicians are scum
Every time i bring up issues such as this, the politicians ALWAYS say that they agree it is not right BUT is was like that when he/she took office. Makes sense to me!
I did not read all the posts saying the same thing, so this may been covered. About fifteen years ago there was a bill (almost made it) that would have increased SLRP again. I called my representative (Rita Martinson) about it and asked why she had voted for it. She said she didn't realize what it was and had not read it but voted for it anyway. I don't know if she had a straight face since we were on the phone.
Following my letter to the editor and others, the bill failed. These scoundrels are thieves of the highest order. Period.
I would not be surprised to see some of them using the 'Bennie Thompson Housing Model' to sponsor a bill that would provide RV campers to legislators at taxpayer expense....that would be the personal property of the thieves.
Tater and Gunn should be able to fix this, don't they have super majorities in both houses?
Let’s be Honest , They cant make it in the Real
World of Ethical Work. They Must Cheat , Steal
And Lie to Get By. Corruption is Rampant.
Leaderships Classes Hell For The Mayor , Try
Ethics and Integrity. They can use The JPS schools
Finally for Something Needed. Run out of room,,,
Set up a Flat Screen in The Zoo.
Everyone is on the Dole. Legal Extortion Water
Dept......to
Quiet Warchest for the Arrogant Intellectuals in
Office that should protect and serve us All.
More Consultant studies than Kenneth Stokes
Grandstanding Ward TV commercials.
Jackson Needs Prayer. It’s slowly Collapsing
From within. May The Good Lord bring
Revival Soon. What happened to The College
Tuition College Plan. Fitch is leaving B 4 She
Gets exposed for not paying attention to
Hard Working Folks College $ For Their Kids.
No Accountability No Guts No Ms. Soon.
Audits would have caught the Stinch Earlier.
Who is paying them to Lie.
It’s A Shame We can Only Put in Office a
Bunch Undereducated Disrespectful Dumb
Asses. Will we ever be Able To Re Build
Our Once Great City ...
proving once again that the only growth industry in this stinking third world banana republic backwater called the republic(AN) 0f mississippi is government..........
0
9
9:36, this was a post about state officials, you realize that right? How drunk are you?
The nation’s economy is booming and Mississippi’s economy still sucks. Graduates from our universities are leaving the state in droves. A dysfunctional government, corruption, trrrible schools and a plantation mentality are killing us. Oh, and the confederate flag.
@9:32am Yes, Mississippi is the musty basement of the nation where no one wants to live unless they have no choice. Where's that flagship school leading the way? Keeping as many in that basement as possible. Charlie Mitchell wrote a pretty good article today about how there was no collusion with Reeves "Roadgate". Everyone's "guilty but not guilty", etc. The real story about the state "officials" (LOL) in Mississippi government is this very culture. Wink, nod, smile. Don't say anything, it'll blow over. JUST KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT or you will be blackballed from the inner circle of power politics. It's the Mississippi Way, always has been on a select few rise.....no different that after the Civil War ended....but it never did end in Mississippi. There must be a ruling class who economically owns others. In other words, for most state employees, stay quiet or lose your job.
"In other words, for most state employees, stay quiet or lose your job."
There's some truth to that....but nearly as true as employment in County government where your job retention is dependent on pleasing three supervisors and you can be whacked tomorrow morning just for opening your mouth.
For the fellow who suggested, "Put them all on social security retirement like the rest of us...". Whose fault is it that you have no retirement program other than social security. I don't bemoan legislators or anybody else having a legitimate retirement program as a reward for legitimate work having been done over decades.
However, what I do mind is the legislature increasing their own retirement and carving themselves out of the normal plan and in effect giving themselves a plum program. That should have been criminal.
My memory takes it all the way back to Charlie Capps from Bolivar County and a gang of hoodlums who were in charge back then. And the night it passed, Tico's and Crechale's had to bring in additional wait-staff.
Nobody has the balls to touch it now or ever.
Well....Ticos might not have been in existence then, but you get the idea. Change that to Dennery's.
I don't know why this comes as a shock to any of you. Bless your hearts, it would do you some good to learn that the majority of career politicians here in the 'sip are self serving opportunists who are full of shit and are not truly concerned with the welfare of the general public in which "they serve" unless it's campaign season... and those who say they are not like "most politicians" are selling you shit in a gussied-up handbasket, on a Sunday. So, "stay woke" my friends.
With that being said, maybe these government fat cats who rarely show up for attendance during session need to take their "hard earned" 17.2 million and split it among the teachers, firefighters and police officers who are working 2-3 part time jobs to make ends meet or buy school supplies for the less fortunate children in their classrooms. Who is going to lead the charge? C'mon boys, election season is upon us! Be the change.
*crickets*
Will next session be the year the dress code in the senate and house changes from coat and tie to those barber-shop shirts Bennie Thompson wears. Pastels with those neat ruffles down the front. I lost a bet by predicting it would be last year. So, I'm going with 2019. You can think and work better if you're not wiggling around with an uncomfortable tie.
The rest of my prediction is this: Willie Simmons will be the first and Bomgar will be the last to convert.
I'm still not sure about the beige, silk trou, though. They may still hold that until Delta Council Day. And socks...socks have to go!
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