Have you ever heard the term “pension spiking”?

Well if not, “pension spiking” is the scheme when employees in concert with their management, inflate their salary in the years immediately preceding retirement in order to receive larger pensions than they otherwise would be entitled to receive. This inflates the pension payments to the retirees.

When government employees working with management/bureaucrats pension spike us the taxpayers end up paying for it.

These inflated pensions strain if not accelerate the pensions fund underfunding.

Last month I wrote a blog describing how Steve Cook, MEA president, working with the Lansing School District are spiking the MEA President’s pension and we will all pay for it.

As reported in the Michigan Capitol Confidential by Jack Spencer, Senator Marty Knollenberg, R-Troy has been quoted as saying  “While Steve Cook’s gaming of MPSERS was not illegal, it certainly was unethical,” and  “Cook enriched himself at the expense of our teachers’ retirement. It’s time to close this loophole to make sure MPSERS benefits go to those intended — our public school teachers and employees.”

Senator Knollenberg's wants to put a stop to this unethical scheme, to do so he has sponsored legislation, Senate Bills 279 and 280, which  is aimed at prohibiting such pension spiking deals, and would also ban school union contracts that pay employees who are union stewards to do union work on school time (a practice they call “release time”).

The bills look like that have a good chance at passing since they each have 14 cosponsors, considering that 19 “yes” votes are needed for passage in the Senate.

Do you know of this pension spiking?

Are you asking yourself why our past politicians never did anything to stop this?

Should the employees who had their pensions spiked have to repay the taxpayers back and have their pensions scaled back to what they were supposed to be?

What are your thoughts?

Let’s discuss this tomorrow (Monday) on my show The Live with Renk show, which airs Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to noon, to let me know your thoughts at (269) 441-9595.

Or please feel free to start a discussion and write your thoughts in the comment section.

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