Haddock letter: Unfunded mandate

Laughable that Gov. Butch Otter should tout his tax cuts when he continues to support an unfunded perk for legislative retirees. His appointment of department heads from the legislative leadership gives them huge retirement spikes that have not been funded (see idahofreedom.org/pension-payoff). PERSI workers and the state as their employer will be paying this off for decades.

The Legislature has failed to end this thus far and the governor is guilty of supporting this unconstitutional perk. If the governor feels the need to put these people in these positions, then give the departments the funds to pay them now, not expect PERSI to cover this unfunded mandate. For a party that has whined for years about unfunded mandates from D.C. they should start cleaning up their own house and the governor should make sure he hasn’t thrown his tax cuts on future taxpayers.

This story was originally published February 5, 2017 at 5:37 PM with the headline "Haddock letter: Unfunded mandate."