Will Shun Pension System, Controller Candidate Says

Republican Dan Stanford said Wednesday that if he is elected state controller he will not join the “bloated and scandalous” pension system the state provides for elected officials.

Both in a speech to supporters and later, Stanford, former chairman of the state Fair Political Practices Commission, charged that the pension program “is an incentive for ambitious politicians to remain in the political process” and become “single-dippers, double-dippers and even triple-dippers” at taxpayer expense.

“Not only will I not be a triple-dipper or double-dipper,” he said, “but if elected state controller, I’ll refuse to even be a single-dipper.”

System Under Fire

The retirement system for elected state officials has come under increasing fire both inside and outside the Legislature for its generous benefits. Legislation is pending that would head off an estimated $3.3-million windfall in pension increases that are tied to pay raises scheduled to take effect for top-level officers next Jan. 1.

An initiative also will appear on the November ballot that would trim back the pay raises and, consequently, the increased pensions of retired state officeholders.

Stanford said he “refused to participate in the pork-barrel pension program” when he was appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian as FPPC chairman. “I’ll do the same thing if I’m elected state controller,” he said.

In an interview, however, Stanford conceded that it would not have been beneficial for him to join the retirement plan as commission chairman because commissioners are appointed to four-year terms and it takes at least five years of approved government service to be eligible for a pension.

But he reasoned, “If I had participated in the pension program, and then became the state controller and (later served in some other) state capacity, I could have been well on my way to becoming a double- or triple-dipper in the system.”

A frequently cited example of how the present law works is the case of former Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown whose current pension of $62,314 would increase to $107,880 next year. In addition to serving two terms as governor, Brown also was state attorney general and district attorney of San Francisco. The pension of U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston, a former state controller, would jump from $57,492 to $98,076.

Stanford called on his election opponents to “indicate whether they would participate in the bloated and scandalous pension system.”