Bill Allowing State Nurses to Collect Pensions While Still Working Passes Overwhelmingly

Michigan House Bill 4248 would allow retired nurses who worked for the state Department of Corrections to return to a job with the department on a part-time basis and collect both their full pension payout and a salary. This "double dipping" by state workers is prohibited by a 2007 law, according to the House Fiscal Agency. The new bill was advanced because the DoC states that it has a nursing shortage and is in need of an enticement to bring more help to their facilities.

A memo from the Senate Fiscal Agency indicates that the policy might bring about "modest savings" for the department.

However, the SFA also notes that savings for the DOC could come at a cost in another area because it will encourage current nurses to retire early and then return for the salary on top of their full pension payout. To the extent that this occurs, it will increase claims against the state's public employee pension system.

The Department of Corrections testified in favor of the bill when it was in the House Judiciary Committee. The legislation was also endorsed by the United Auto Workers Local 6000, a Michigan state employees' union.

On March 5, 2009, the Michigan House voted 98-6 in favor of approving HB 4248. The six dissenting votes were all Republicans.

More than a year later, on Wednesday, March 17, 2010, the Michigan Senate voted 37-1 to approve the bill. The lone dissenting vote was Sen. Michael "Mickey" Switalski, D-Roseville.

Switalski gave a short address to the chamber, explaining his concerns with the legislation. The remarks are reprinted below.

A MichiganVotes.org listing of the roll call vote in both chambers follows the Switalski remarks.

Contact information for all lawmakers is available at www.MichCapCon.com/9313

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Senator Switalski's statement is as follows:

I must rise in opposition to this bill, although by itself it might be an acceptable bill with a few changes. It is an example of a growing practice that is bad policy. It is a growing practice that is incompatible with what should be our No. 1 public policy goal because our biggest problem in the state is jobs and unemployment.

This bill does not create new jobs for people who are laid off or unemployed. This bill changes the law to allow workers already drawing a public pension to draw a second paycheck. It gives the lucky ones two checks while the unemployed get none. Regrettably, this practice is growing. It is an element in the Governor's retirement reform package. Current employees could retire and return part-time to do the same job. We have a growing number of contract employees in state government who too often are retired state employees who walk through a revolving door and return doing the same job at twice the pay; while low-seniority state employees are laid off to free up funds to pay the contractors.

Then we have the worse abuse, the DROP program that allows State Police to collect their pension without ever retiring for five years. We laid off troopers last year while we were providing others a chance to double dip. This hurts the solvency of the retirement fund and wastes the money we spend on a troopers school.

These practices in this bill are incompatible with our goals of reducing unemployment in Michigan. The policy must change.

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(Editor's Note for May 10, 2010: Please note that the vote from the House of Representatives noted below was the first vote taken on this legislation. More than a year after this first vote, and shortly following the action in the Senate described above, the House took a second vote on the matter before sending it to the governor for a signature on April 22, 2010. The House voted a second time with a large 100-7 majority, but the group of lawmakers voting for and against it changed slightly. The second vote is here.)

Lawmakers who voted IN FAVOR of allowing "double dipping" for some state employees:

SENATE REPUBLICANS (22)

~Allen ~Birkholz ~Bishop ~Brown ~Cassis ~Cropsey ~Garcia ~George ~Gilbert ~Hardiman ~Jansen ~Jelinek ~Kahn ~Kuipers ~McManus ~Nofs ~Pappageorge ~Patterson ~Richardville ~Sanborn ~Stamas ~Van Woerkom

HOUSE REPUBLICANS (35)

~Ball ~Bolger ~Booher ~Calley ~Caul ~Crawford ~Daley ~Denby ~DeShazor ~Haines ~Hansen ~Haveman ~Horn ~Jones, Rick ~Knollenberg ~Kowall ~Kurtz ~Lori ~Lund ~Marleau ~Meekhof ~Moore ~Moss ~Opsommer ~Pavlov ~Pearce ~Proos ~Rocca ~Rogers ~Schmidt, W. ~Schuitmaker ~Scott, P. ~Stamas ~Tyler ~Walsh

SENATE DEMOCRATS (15)

~Anderson ~Barcia ~Basham ~Brater ~Cherry ~Clark-Coleman ~Clarke ~Gleason ~Hunter ~Jacobs ~Olshove ~Prusi ~Scott ~Thomas ~Whitmer

HOUSE DEMOCRATS (63)

~Angerer ~Barnett ~Bauer ~Bennett ~Bledsoe ~Brown, L. ~Brown, T. ~Byrnes ~Byrum ~Clemente ~Constan ~Corriveau ~Coulouris ~Cushingberry ~Dean ~Dillon ~Donigan ~Durhal ~Ebli ~Espinoza ~Geiss ~Gonzales ~Gregory ~Haase ~Hammel ~Haugh ~Huckleberry ~Jackson ~Jones, Robert ~Kandrevas ~Kennedy ~Lahti ~LeBlanc ~Leland ~Lemmons ~Lindberg ~Lipton ~Liss ~Mayes ~McDowell ~Meadows ~Miller ~Nathan ~Nerat ~Neumann ~Polidori ~Roberts ~Schmidt, R. ~Scott, B. ~Scripps ~Segal ~Sheltrown ~Simpson ~Slavens ~Slezak ~Smith ~Spade ~Stanley ~Switalski ~Tlaib ~Valentine ~Warren ~Young

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Lawmakers who voted AGAINST allowing "double dipping" for some state employees:

SENATE REPUBLICANS (0)

NONE

HOUSE REPUBLICANS (6)

~Agema ~Amash ~Genetski ~Green ~McMillin ~Meltzer

SENATE DEMOCRATS (1)

~Switalski

HOUSE DEMOCRATS (0)

NONE

Legislators who DID NOT VOTE:

~Rep. Elsenheimer (R) ~Rep. Griffin (D) ~Rep. Hildenbrand (R) ~Rep. Johnson (D) ~Rep. Melton ~Rep. Womack (D)