NH Firefighter Challenging Law Limiting Hours of Retirees
A retired New Hampshire firefighter is challenging a state law that limits the number of hours he can work.
Mark T. Lemay, a retired Manchester firefighter who works part-time for Goffstown, Litchfield and the State Fire Academy, has filed suit along with three retired police officers, William R. Tucker Jr., Gregory Santuccio, and Scott Anderson. Each of the officers have continued to work as police officers in other NH communities following their retirement.
The four are suing the New Hampshire Retirement System (NHRS) alleging that changes made in 2011 and 2012 governing retirees’ part-time employment are unconstitutional as ex post facto laws prohibited by Article 23 of the state constitution.
The laws is question limit retirees to working no more than 32 hours a week for the state, or a city, town, county or school district while collecting a pension. The laws coincide with laws that require employees who work more than 32 hours a week to contribute into the pension system.
The employees allege that because they had already retired when the laws were enacted, it is illegal for the retirement system to restrict their hours. Attorneys for the NHRS have taken the position that Lemay and the three officers have sued the wrong party: they should have sued the state of New Hampshire who enacted the laws, not the retirement system.
The UnionLeader.com quoted state Senator Jeb Bradley as commenting about the case: “Of all the things the public gets up in arms about, double-dipping is one of the worst. The public feels the system is being abused by double-dipping … To allow someone to get a retirement check at the same time they are in a highly paid job, the public has said, ‘Enough,’ and I think they are outraged.”
The laws were enacted as part of a reform effort to address a pension underfunding problem. The theory was that retirees working over 32 hours a week are essentially taking jobs away from full time employees who would be contributing to the pension system. The laws do not limit the hours that retirees can work for employers who are not part of the NHRS.
The state of florida has several different retirement systems and the double dipping charge is a hot button but here’s how it works
the prefered retirement everyone wants in is FRS (fl retirement system) but to get in is a major money commitment by a municipality so there are other option program for smaller towns and cities BUT you are allowed to be in one after being in another Ie; you do 20 in FRS, retire then take another job that has FLC (fl legue of cities) where you can start from square 1 and once vested collect another pension. folks here are trying to squash that calling that a double dip.
if the guys in NH put in their time and want to work, they might have to cut off their benifits if they are working in the same system’s retirement (undertandable) BUT a fair way would be to let them have a 401K or particiopate in a seperate state run retirement system, why let the valuable expierence that some have go to waste