POLITICIAN WATCH : Pensions Plus

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will have the chance today to modify--although not, unfortunately, eliminate--one of the more flagrant taxpayer rip-offs in recent memory.

Three years ago then-Chief Administrative Officer Richard B. Dixon initiated, and the supervisors oh-so-quietly approved, a plan to permit the cost of benefits to be treated as compensation when calculating county pensions. Thus benefits such as medical and dental insurance and--for supervisors and others lucky enough to have them--car allowances now count as salary when determining pensions. That sweetener will boost taxpayer costs by as much as $400 million over the next 30 years.

Supervisor Gloria Molina, who was not a member of the board when the pension-spiking scheme was adopted, says that it’s costing about $300,000 a week to fund this particular goody. She’s supporting recommendations made by the Economy and Efficiency Commission to control the plan’s abuses. Among other things, benefit costs would be excluded when figuring pensions for future employees and the dollar amount allowed for current employees would be cut or frozen.

All this is of course worth doing. Regrettably it won’t roll back the windfalls that pension spiking already has made possible. One non-elected official will retire next month, for example, with an annual pension about $35,000 higher than his current salary. This program is a scandal. It will be a far greater one if the supervisors don’t act today to curb it. Taxpaying voters are waiting and watching.