Roscoe Dixon stepped down as state senator for a job at the county level. According to information from a very, very good source, the reason that state legislators take county jobs late in their career is for a bigger pension.
If they retire as a legislator, they get a pension based on their $15,000/year salary.
If they get a county job at $90,000 a year, all their years of service get folded into their pension at the higher rate. The taxpayer takes the hit while the politician laughs all the way to the bank.
So activist and longtime Democrat party faithful Sidney Chism was installed in the state Senate to fill a vacancy until a special election can be held. He'll only be there a couple of months and he won't be running for a permant place in the senate, so what does he get for his trouble?
Chism will be paid the standard legislative salary, $16,500 per year divided by the number of weeks he serves. Lawmakers also receive a $141 per day expense allowance to cover lodging and meals in Nashville, and 35 cents per mile or airfare for one round-trip weekly to the Capitol.Take care of the Democrat party and the Democrat party will take care of you.Chism will not qualify for the legislative pension -- it takes four full years of service for that -- but his service will qualify him for a potentially more valuable benefit: the ability to buy state employee health insurance at discounted rates for life.
If he opts into the health insurance system while he's a legislator, he will be eligible to maintain state health insurance coverage at 40 percent of its annual cost. The state will pay the other 60 percent.