Disgraced Secretary of State Tom Schedler will receive nearly $9,000 a month in retirement benefits, despite resigning in the face of sexual misconduct allegations.
Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, said taxpayers will foot the retirement bill for Schedler who will start to collect nearly $108,000 a year when he steps down next week.
“His misconduct is going to cost the state of Louisiana and taxpayers a lot of money,” Goyeneche said. “They paid into his pension expecting good, honest services. They didn’t receive it. And because they didn’t receive it, now the state and taxpayers are going to have to pay a settlement for his misconduct, but he still gets the full benefit of the contract.”
“It’s going to offend taxpayers,” said U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana. “I find it offensive. It’s legal. I don’t want to begrudge anyone a pension that they’ve earned, but look at the circumstances under which the secretary had to step down. This isn’t over yet.”
Right now, the only way a government employee can lose his or her pension is if he or she convicted of a felony. Goyeneche said that law needs to be expanded to include misconduct.
According to The New Orleans Advocate, Louisiana taxpayers have paid nearly $4 million since 2004 to settle sexual harassment and gender-based claims made by state employees.
“If we want to discourage this type of conduct going forward, there need to be more severe consequences for people that do abuse their public office,” Goyenche said.
Kennedy said he thinks the Legislature will look into the situation with Schedler and his taxpayer-funded pension.