Double-Dipping Perks Given to Senior S.C. Judges

S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal on Tuesday said she started receiving retirement payments, which she noted stands at about $131,000 annually, on June 3, 2010.

Contacted Tuesday by The Nerve, Justice Costa Pleicones estimated he has been getting retirement income, which was $125,306 in 2012, according to a financial-disclosure statement he released earlier to The Nerve, since July 2007.

The two longtime jurists, who are expected to square off at noon today in an election in the General Assembly for the chief justice seat, are among an elite group of judges – 17 for the last quarter of 2013 – who are drawing their judicial salaries and retirement income at the same time, according to information provided Tuesday to The Nerve by the S.C. Public Employee Benefit Authority (PEBA).

Solicitors and circuit public defenders belong to same state retirement system, called the “Judges and Solicitors Retirement System. (JSRS)” There is one “working retired” solicitor and no “working retired” public defenders, PEBA spokeswoman Megan Lightle said in a written response to The Nerve.

The other three justices on the Supreme Court – Donald Beatty, Kaye Hearn and John Kittredge – each toldThe Nerve on Tuesday they receive no state retirement benefits.

“I’m not 60; I’ve never even thought about double dipping,” said Kittredge, 57.

The retirement system for judges and solicitors is the smallest of the state’s five retirement systems, serving 201 retirees and their beneficiaries as of July 1, 2013, compared to, for example, 127,777 retirees and their beneficiaries in the general employee retirement system, which includes public school teachers, according to PEBA’s fiscal 2013 financial report.

But the judges’ retirement system has the highest average annual benefit – $79,560 as of July 1, 2013 – among all of the systems, the PEBA report shows. As a comparison, the current average annual retirement benefit for general employees and police officers is $19,497 and $19,401, respectively.

Toal, who has been chief justice since 2000 and a member of the high court since 1988, earns an annual judicial salary of $148,350, according to a state salary database maintained by The State newspaper. Toal’s yearly retirement income of about $131,000 represents 88 percent of her judicial salary.

Pleicones’ annual retirement income of $125,306 as of 2012 represents about the same percentage of his $141,286 yearly judicial salary.

State lawmakers, who are served by their own retirement system, also receive proportionately higher retirement benefits compared to other state retirees. As of July 1, 2013, the average annual retirement benefit for lawmakers was $18,560, which represented more than 83 percent of the average annual $22,267 salary for legislators, according to PEBA's year-end report.

The Nerve has previously reported on the generous retirement benefits for lawmakers.

Read the rest of the story at TheNerve.org.