Your Tax Dollars at Work
Patrick highlights the case of one Robert Codey, brother of our acting Governor. It seems that Robert suddenly has received a significant raise in pay, and is now eligible to retire with an annual pension $36,000 higher than what he would have otherwise received.
Mr. Codey is 55. Given a life expectancy of 79 years, the taxpayers of New Jersey have just been stuck with an additional liability of $864,000 that will directly benefit the acting Governor's immediate family.
Patrick's comment:
I sincerely hope that no evidence is turned up here to show Dick is responsible for his brother's raise.I don't believe that evidence is necessary. The appearance of impropriety alone should have been enough, whether or not the acting Governor had anything to do with this decision. The people of New Jersey should not be paying for large gifts to those close to their unelected leaders.
UPDATE (2/12): roberto over at DynamoBuzz has a slightly different angle, but with a similar result. I hadn't noticed some facts he points out
- Codey's transfer occured October 1st, before his brother took over as acting Governor. Of course, it was also well after it became apparent that Dick Codey would replace McGreevey.
- Apparently New Jersey government employees with 30 years of service retire at 70% of their highest annual salary (see here). Contrast this with US Military retirement -- men and women who lay their lives on the line in defense of our way of life. They are entitled to 75% after 30 years, but this is calculated based on an average of their highest three years. High Year Tenure rules also limit the number of military members who can actually finish 30 years.
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