As the saying goes, if you look hard, you’ll find a loophole. And in New Jersey, 18 state employees have — by collecting two paychecks: one for being “totally and permanently disabled” and therefore unable to work, and another for working nonetheless.
According to a New Jersey Watchdog investigation, these 18 employees double-dip to the tune of $2.2 million a year — $1 million in tax-free accidental disability pay plus $1.2 million in salaries.
How have these employees, all law-enforcement retirees, managed to pull in more than $5 million in disability pay since they returned to full-time jobs? Well, under New Jersey’s pension law, line-of-duty injuries entitle them to receive two-thirds of their former pay tax-free for life under accidental disability benefits.
“These people are playing within the rules of the game,” says James Sierchio, a state pension board member advocating reform. “But the rules of the game are so absurd, they need to be changed.”
The report cites a few of the recipients’ “crippling” injuries, like that of Adam Heck — a cop who, while responding to a domestic dispute, was struck on the hand with a hockey stick. Heck retired at age 28 in 1993 and now makes six figures working for Gov. Chris Christie, even as he continues to receive his retirement disability check, which totals $44,818 a year.
The rules don’t apply to all state employees; equal treatment is apparently non-existent in Jersey. And we don’t take umbrage with a disability program that protects those who actually need it; we support that. We do, however, have a problem with a standard that allows one group of employees to benefit when they have no need at all.
There should be one standard. And taxpayers shouldn’t shoulder such a heavy a bill so a few can make double the money.