Bellotti was able to take advantage of a variety of loopholes – including a well timed divorce and remarriage, plus payments based on Nike earnings for which no contributions were made – to get a budget busting $500,000 a year PERS payoff. Ted Sickinger of the Oregonian did an amazing investigative story on that last year, after the Oregonian sued PERS for the data. The always well informed Hannah Hoffman explains that b-baller coach George Horton won’t get the same special benefits, due to recent federal reforms. Meanwhile all of us in the 57% are paying for Bellotti, and will be for a long time. The state recently announced huge increases in the cost of covering past PERS largess, the Oregonian has covered this in detail, one story here.
So is it possible for the legislature to pass law that no one receive such outrageous payments from PERS by putting a cap on such payouts? Make it retroactive to cover anyone sucking the state dry by such shifty acts.
I believe anyone should be able to live quite well off 200K a year. I know I could and would be happy to even give it a try for just one year to prove a point.
Our entire administration seems to have used the University as an avenue of self enrichment…I mean look at the raises they took while Dave F was in office and after he left continued to take, its clear the “plan” was for self enrichment to last through retirement. Talk about a scam…the UO and the entire state have been scammed by these people.
I’m no expert on this (not by a long shot), but it’s implied in the recent RG article on PERS that passing such a law would be “…difficult legally because of a state Supreme Court ruling that nullified some of the 2003 pension system reforms by then-Gov. Ted Kulongoski. The court said the state can’t diminish pension benefits that have already been promised to workers.” — http://www.registerguard.com/web/updates/28821309-55/pension-percent-public-costs-contributions.html.csp
So you’ll have to remain angry!
Though the abuse of the system is appalling, I can understand the court’s reasoning — if promised benefits aren’t given, no one would have confidence that the pay/benefits they get will be delivered.
I would say it pays to know all the loopholes available to the not so common citizens doesn’t it. And who would know those loopholes best but a bunch of over paid lawyers and former government legals. We the citizens of Oregon have been duped by a few greedy, slithering snakes.
Proves that it works well to have a reputation to hide behind that provide cover for your dirty work. Must be proud. Laughing all the way to the bank every month. Gotta just love it! Yeah…I’ll be staying angry.
– including a well timed divorce and remarriage…Just read this…please explain more about a ‘well timed divorce’…what does that mean? And ‘remarriage’…has nothing to do with anything being discussed about his PERS benefits. Why ever include such an ignorant remark in an article?
I’m no marriage counselor, but the timing was lucrative, and costly for PERS. Quoting from the Oregonian: