State Senator creates $122,000 a year job for herself

Americans for Prosperity

AFP Pension Reform TV Ad Focuses on Legislator Who Voted to Create Government Job Then Was the Only Candidate for the Job

Sublimity – With States across America reforming the way government employees are compensated, AFP-Oregon today continued its ten-week television ad project to educate Oregonians about problems with the State’s Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) and to urge reform of the system during the 2011 Legislative Session.  The series will highlight some of the public officials who have cost taxpayers millions in cost overruns on public projects or lawsuit settlements, or have been accused of self-dealing, and are now eligible for generous pensions – all financed by the hard-working families of Oregon.   Viewers are encouraged to visit www.americansforprosperityoregon.com to learn more, and to contact their Legislators to demand reform of the troubled retirement system.

The third ad in this series, which begins running today, features former State LegislatorMargaret Carter.  Carter was a Member of the State Senate when she voted for HB 2009 in the 2009 Session.  This bill created the position of Deputy Director of theDepartment of Human Services.  After the bill was signed into law, Carter resigned her Senate seat to accept the new job she’d voted to create.  No other candidate for the job was even interviewed.  A lawsuit was filed alleging Carter had violated Oregon’s Constitution and was involved in “self-dealing” by voting to create, and then lobbying for and accepting the new job.  The move boosted Carter’s salary from about $20,000 a year to $122,000 a year, and dramatically increased her potential PERS retirement.  Under the system, Carter’s 24 years of low-salaried Legislative service will be “rolled up” to her new, much higher salary for retirement benefit calculations purposes after only a few years in her new job.

“Taxpayers in our state are struggling under a growing burden from PERS,” noted AFP-Oregon State Director Jeff Kropf.  “For too long, the Legislature and the Governor have failed to act to curb double-dipping and self-dealing.  It’s time for strong action that will remove Legislators, the Governor and Oregon Judges from PERS, and require all government employees to pay at least 6 percent of their salaries into their ownretirement plans.  Without these and other steps, PERS will continue to be an albatross around the neck of Oregon’s private sector.”

The AFP-Oregon ads are running in media markets across the State. www.americansforprosperityoregon.com.