Greenville’s Sen. David Thomas Made Taxpayer Rip-off Poster Boy by Liberal Press
Taxpayers are angry. The government of South Carolina is broke, a very important election year approaches, the South Carolina Republican Party is trying to clean house and improve its image and, out of the clear blue, Gannett newspapers nationally and locally feature Republican Sen. David Thomas as the Poster Boy for legislative pension abuses.
The September 23-25 Weekend edition of USA Today featured a front page “Special Report” titled “How State Lawmakers Pump up Pensions in Ways you Can’t.”
The article started on page one with a photograph of a smiling Sen. Thomas and the caption: “Thomas takes pension worth triple his pay,” and continues inside to fill most of pages 8, 9, and 10.
The article by Thomas Frank states in a sub-headline that Thomas used a one-sentence law that he and his colleagues passed in 2002 to permit lawmakers to receive a taxpayer funded pension instead of a salary after serving 30 years.
The article alleges that Thomas has received $148,435 more than his legislative salary would have been since January 2005 and that he will draw $32,390 annually from the taxpayers for the rest of his life whether or not serving in the legislature.
The report claims that four other South Carolina lawmakers are drawing retirement in lieu of their salaries, but names only Thomas.
Although Thomas is singled out as an abuser, the report indicates that similar abuses are taking place in 33 states and much of the report deals with pension abuses in other states.
Exposure of a legislative pension scandal in South Carolina at this time is traumatic because of a large funding shortfall in the state retirement system that jeopardizes pensions of other state employees.
Additionally, there is a crisis brewing regarding funding of the 2012 Presidential Preference Primary. Governor Haley has said the state does not have the money to pay for it, although the state is running the election. The political parties do not intend to pay for the election and the county election offices are concerned that they are going to be stuck with the multi-million dollar bill.
Locally, Tea Party and RINO Hunt members are looking for candidates to challenge State Senators whose voting records do not reflect their campaign promises or the conservative values of their constituents and are involved in holding up critical conservative sponsored legislation passed by the House.
Senator Thomas, featured in the USA Today article, already has a potential opponent. Jim Lee, one of several candidates who challenged Rep. Bob Inglis in the 2010 Republican Primary, publicly announced several months ago that he intends to challenge Sen. Thomas in the 2012 GOP primary.
The Senate-approved redistricting plan drew Lee out of Thomas’ district, but the plan has not yet been approved by the U.S. Justice Department and could change. Regardless, Lee said he would change his residence if necessary in order to challenge Thomas.
The local political “clean-up crew” was quick to react. Harry Kibler, founder of RINO Hunt informed The Times Examiner, Monday, that his organization is planning a “David Thomas Retirement Party” for October 20, 2011. Kibler said the event will serve as a fundraiser for Jim Lee.