Monday, TUA (Taxpayers United of America) announced Pittsburgh public employee pension figures that were based on information obtained from Right-to-Know requests of city and county pension funds.
Attorney for the pension fund, Jim South, said that the information they provided was inaccurate based on the actual request for pension data.
“The figures were wrong, because the information we received from the city was wrong,” stated Christina Tobin, Vice President of TUA. “The city said they will provide the correct information, which TUA will publish upon receipt.”
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In Altoona, TUA was told it was incorrect in stating that Reynold Santone, Jr., the current fire chief, was getting pension payments since 4/1/2009 of $4000 a month.
TUA was informed by Kimberly Carrieri, Deputy City Clerk, that Mr. Santone has not directly received the payments; instead, he is in a ‘drop program.’ His pension benefit is taken out of the pension fund, and placed in a special pension account for him. So while he is not currently collecting it directly, the money is indeed, being accumulated for him.
“Mr. Santone would be disingenuous to deny that he is not receiving both a pension and salary from the taxpayers of Altoona.  A deferred payment is a payment. This ability to double dip from taxpayers is precisely why TUA names names.  It is one of the many flaws of the current pension system in Altoona, the flaws created by bad union bosses making deals with bad politicians at the expense of taxpayers and rank-and-file alike” added Tobin.
View/download the orginal raw data provided by Altoona and Pittsburgh city governments:

By on March 15, 2012   /   Latest, Pennsylvania, Pension Reform