Hooper, N.Y. lawmakers to receive pension, salary

Nearly a dozen New York state legislators, including Assemblywoman Earlene Hooper (D-Hempstead), will collect two checks from taxpayers next year: one for their salaries and another for their pensions.

The 11 lawmakers are set to cash in on their pensions while continuing to serve in office and collect salaries, thanks to a loophole that allows them to technically retire at year’s end and return to work Jan. 1 for their new two-year terms. The officials — six Republicans and five Democrats — filed retirement papers with the state comptroller’s office on Dec. 1.

Hooper, whose district includes Baldwin as well as Lakeview, West Hempstead and East Meadow, will collect an estimated $89,300 pension in addition to her $104,500 legislative salary, according to published reports.

Hooper’s office had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.

The legislators’ action is not illegal, but only those who are 65 and older and who were elected before 1995 can collect both salary and pension, because the Legislature closed the loophole that year. Hooper has been in office since 1988 and is serving her second term as the Assembly’s deputy speaker.

While critics — among them the political action group New Yorkers for Growth — labeled the move double-dipping, some officials defended themselves, saying they are entitled to pensions at 65 and are actually saving taxpayers money by not accruing more time in the system, according to published reports.

“I think it’s exactly what’s wrong with Albany: These guys write their own rules,” said Liz Feld, a spokeswoman for New Yorkers for Growth. “They say it’s legitimate and it’s legal. Well, it’s legal because they wrote the law. Make it

illegal.”

Hooper has spoken out against pension gaming in the past and, in an October interview with the Herald, she said that the State Legislature, like the society it governs, is plagued by greed and instant gratification.

“I call it ‘conspicuous consumption,’” Hooper said, “and it has brought us to a near depression. … We have to manage government as we do our own finances — pay as we go.”