Or so he says.
Rick Perry has done something his opponents have been hoping he’d do for years: retire. But it’s not what the governor’s detractors had in mind.
Perry officially retired in January so he could start collecting his lucrative pension benefits early, but he still gets to collect his salary — and has in turn dramatically boosted his take-home pay.
Perry makes a $150,000 annual gross salary as Texas governor. Now, thanks to his early retirement, Perry, 61, gets a monthly retirement annuity of $7,698 before taxes, or $6,588 net. That raises his gross annual salary to more than $240,000.
On a swing through Cherokee, Iowa, Perry was asked why the Employee Retirement System should be paying his retirement while he's still collecting a salary.
"That’s been in place for decades. ... I don’t find that to be out of the ordinary,” Perry said. "ERS called me and said, 'Listen, you're eligible to access your retirement now with your military time and your time and service, and I think you would be rather foolish to not access what you’ve earned.'” ...Texas Tribune
No, he hasn't retired as governor. No, he's not (yet) dropping out of the Republican race. He's just gettin' a shitload of money from Texas taxpayers at a time when even Texas is hurting.
Perry will get credit for any subsequent years he works as Texas governor, so he'll receive a higher pension benefit if he serves out the remaining three years of his term as Texas governor, officials said. Perry is allowed to retire in two different systems — the "employee class" from which he is retired now, and the "elected class" system he will take retirement from when he leaves office.
"The annuity will be recalculated at retirement and the amount will depend on when he retires from the elected class," Sullivan said.
Perry also is eligible for Social Security benefits and lifetime, state-provided health care. ...Texas Tribune
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Daily Intel also takes a dim view of Perry's blatant hypocrisy.
Rick Perry Has Retired ‘Retired’
Rick Perry officially "retired" in January, although apparently, in Texas, "retiring" just means declaring that you are retired, then continuing to work while receiving both a salary (in Perry's case $150,000 a year) and a pension ($7,698 per month). Boy, that Rick Perry sure hates government.
