Hutchinson: Pensions a no-win situation
The current controversy about pensions for County Council members is a no-win scenario regardless of what the council may or may not do in the way of reform, according to former County Executive Don Hutchinson.
“There’s no way they can win on it,” Hutchinson said, adding that voters would likely see any action as “nothing more than reaction to a story of exposure.”
“I don’t think this council can do anything about it,” Hutchinson said. “I think the council, any council, could have changed it, but they chose not to. The new council can talk about it, consider it, discuss it. I think this council is best to leave it alone.”
The two-term Democratic executive talked about the pension issue during an interview about a possible return to politics.
Hutchinson said he understood why the pension issue has captured the attention of the public.
“I think that the average man and woman always look at somebody else’s life in comparison to their own and what they know,” Hutchinson said. “They know that when they retire, regardless of the job they had or what they’ve done, they know they’re not going to get full compensation for their retired years. They know they’re income is not 100 percent of what it was when they left their job.
“That’s all they know, and that’s what they think is fair. They think what is fair for everybody is what has been fair for them.”
So is the public wrong?
“I don’t want to say that,” Hutchinson said. “I can’t say that the public is wrong. I can’t say the council is right. It just depends on each person’s perspective on their own life.”
Hutchinson went on to say the issue is more political than fiscal.
“It has very little to do with cost exposure at all, ” Hutchinson said. “It has everything to do with what voters think is fair. That’s the dilemma that (the council) confronts.”
Hutchinson said the council had an opportunity over the last 50 years to change the system.
“I think each member of the council understood (the pension) when they made those decisions,” he said. “They knew what their retirement was going to be. They had chances all along, and they chose not to do it. I’m not going to make any judgment about that at all.”
County executive pensions are capped by virtue of the two-term limit that only allows for a maximum pension equal to 40 percent of their highest annual salary.
Is it fair for the co-equal branch of government to have no caps, I asked.
“The county executive pension is capped in a very, very fair and equitable way,” Hutchinson said. “The council members have to decide what is fair for them and over the course of 50 years, 50-plus years, each subsequent council has made a decision about what is fair for them.
“I won’t make a judgment as to whether every council member miscalculated what was the appropriate thing to do. I don’t know. They have to be accountable for their decisions and I think that’s the process that began (last Wednesday).”
In the end, Hutchinson said, the pension issue will not be “the singular issue” on which the 2010 election will turn.
“Everybody has a lifestyle for which they will be held accountable for and made life decisions they are held accountable for during the election process,” Hutchinson said. “It’s a cumulative effect that voters are going to use to make judgments and this is one of the things that has been put in the voters’ quivers.”