JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — In the final hours of the first session of the 97th General Assembly, a bill dealing with judicial procedures was amended with language dealing with the pension plans of new and existing county judges.
The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Donna Lichtenegger, R-Jackson, would have allowed for all judges who began working for the court system after Jan. 1, 2011, to be exempt from the current judicial pension program. Instead, these judges would have remained on the previous, now defunct, pension plan.
“It was a sweetheart deal,” said the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Public Employee Retirement, Rep. Mike Leara, R-Sunset Hills. “It was a deal that directly impacted only 16 people, but would have allowed for potentially any new judge to be eligible.”
The state of Missouri made changes to the pension plans for state judges several years ago. The previous plan required no deduction from employee salary and a 100 percent cash payout for spouses upon the death of the retired employee. The new plan included a 4 percent deduction from employee pay to fund it, and included a 50 percent cut in the spouse payout and a “much less aggressive COLA (cost of living adjustment)” than the previous plan, according to Leara.
Leara said the old pension plan was abandoned because it was far too costly without asking for any contribution from the employee, and that without the pension plan change, many future retirees would have seen massive cuts in benefits.
Leara objected strongly to the amendment on the floor and said his analysis showed a cost of more than $4 million annually to the state, with the potential for a much higher impact, as new judges would be eligible for the carve-out as well. Leara said a large part of his objection was that the 16 judges in question largely took their jobs when the current plan was already in place, and that the older plan was “never an option” to them.
“[They] did not become a judge when that plan was even available,” Leara said. “You knew what the plan was, you knew the numbers, you knew what you were getting into. You can’t just get yourself a sweeter deal just because you don’t like it.”
After the amendment was defeated in a voice vote, the leadership allowed for a roll call vote. The amendment was voted down 72-79. Leara and Lichtenegger both indicated that the amendment would not have been as close if it had not come so late in session, when a large number of amendments are offered at the last minute.
Of the 16 judges who would have been eligible for the amendments benefits, The Missouri Times has learned of at least one that lobbied for the bill outright.
Scott Lipke, former state representative and current circuit judge in Cape Girardeau, originally brought the amendment to Lichtenegger, who sits in Lipke’s old district and considers Lipke to be a “close friend.” According to her, Lipke originally asked her for the language to be offered as an amendment in the final days of session, but didn’t explain many of the details.
Lichtenegger told The Missouri Times that she probably wouldn’t have supported the amendment if she had more time to appropriately study it. In fact, she offered a bill earlier this year, which would have removed the pension program for state legislators entirely. An expansion of a no-longer-used pension plan, she said, is not exactly her biggest priority.
“I did this as a favor to Scott [Lipke],” Lichtenegger said. “Pretty much knowing it wasn’t going anywhere.”
Lipke also attempted to contact Leara just before the bill came to the floor, Leara confirmed with The Missouri Times. Lipke tried to text Leara to speak with him about the amendment, likely looking for the leading House member on pensions to drop his objections to his amendment. Leara did not contact Lipke back before the debate and vote, he said.
Lichtenegger says she regrets offering the amendment without having time to vet it.
“Obviously it was a lesson learned, because I’m not going to offer anything like that again without making sure it’s been properly vetted,” Lichtenegger said. “We shouldn’t be throwing stuff on bills that nobody has heard.”
She also told The Missouri Times that she would be offering a bill next year which would help prevent legislation from arriving on the floor which had not been properly vetted in committee, adding that “last minute,” changes to bills are common, and usually not a good thing.
“We see this happening at the end of every session, where people try to attach things at the last moment that they think people won’t understand,” Lichtenegger said. “We’ve got to stop that, we can’t be responsible with that kind of lawmaking.”
The amendment was offered Thursday afternoon, 27 hours before the end of session, and many people on the floor might not have known what they were voting for, Rep. Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, said.
“As the final hours approach and people are trying to squeeze in as much as possible, sometimes you end up learning about something on the floor while your debating,” Richardson said. “And this is a fairly common practice, to try to attach things at the last minute. It’s not necessarily good all the time or bad all the time, but it is a common practice.”
Richardson, who voted in favor of the amendment, said he didn’t have much information on it before the vote, and that if he’d had “the benefit of time to get greater understanding,” he might have changed his mind. Richardson said he was not, however, approached by Lipke about the bill.
Scott Lipke did not respond to requests for a comment.
To contact Collin Reischman, email collin@themissouritimes.com, or via Twitter at @Collin_MOTimes.
Collin Reischman was the Managing Editor for The Missouri Times, and a graduate of Webster University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.
