ALBANY — Republican comptroller hopeful Harry Wilson yesterday blasted a secret retirement deal — and $9,000-a-year pension bonus — that Democratic incumbent Thomas DiNapoli secured for a top aide, calling it “tantamount to pension fraud.”
Wilson called for the Albany district attorney to investigate an unusual retirement transaction that boosted to a whopping $126,841 the state’s annual pension payment to Nancy Burton, a former assistant deputy comptroller and longtime Democratic activist.
“It’s outrageous,” Wilson told The Post. “It’s tantamount to pension fraud.”
The Post reported yesterday that DiNapoli allowed Burton to take part in a special early-retirement program, even though Gov. Paterson’s budget officials criticized the move as a long-term money-loser.
To make the scheme work, Burton was allowed to resign her leadership post in the agency’s Division of Retirement Services, take a lower-paying civil-service job and retire all on the same day.
The deal would cost taxpayers an estimated $216,000 if Burton, who’s 59, reaches the average female life expectancy of 83 for a woman of her current age.
DiNapoli spokesman Dennis Tompkins insisted the move would actually save taxpayers $240,000 a year, since the agency has eliminated one of Burton’s jobs and chosen to leave the other vacant.
Additional reporting by Reuven Fenton