Another Straw for Your Camel From ThreeCardMonte Doyle

You really wanted to pay more in property taxes, right?

Well, Three Card Monte Doyle has just the thing for you!

Education support staff would be treated the same as teachers in terms of how quickly they can enter the state retirement system and when they can retire, under a proposal in Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget.

The changes would increase costs to the system and raise benefits for teachers’ aides, cafeteria workers and clerical staff who would be affected. Exact costs weren’t included in Doyle’s budget or an analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

It will add another cost to school districts that are required to contribute to qualified employees’ retirement payments and likely force schools to turn to higher property taxes to make up the difference, Ashley said.

Guess who first cooked this up? The Geriatric himself:

The school board association was the lone opponent to the idea when state Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, introduced the bill in 2007

Doyle’s proposal essentially puts teachers’ aides, cafeteria workers and clerical staff, on the same level as teachers and administrators for purposes of retirement eligibility and service credit.

It would allow the support staff to enter the retirement system after meeting the same hours-worked threshold as teachers, which currently is 26 percent less.

Both changes would not only add more people to the retirement system, it would also increase their potential benefit. A breakdown of the 2007 bill’s potential cost said about 19,900 participants in the retirement system could see benefits increased because of the changes, but it did not say how much money that would be.

Who CARES how much it would cost when buying votes with Other People's Money?