NJ Watchdog: After 16 years as double-dipper, cop retires for 2nd pension

As New Jersey looks to fix a state pension system that's billions in debt, Patrick J. Higgins and other double-dippers find new ways to squeeze it for every dollar they can.

Higgins retired this month – for a second time. So the longtime law officer will begin collecting two state pensions, totaling nearly $100,000 a year, instead of one.

A New Jersey Watchdog examination of the underlying circumstances illustrates how public officials can legally exploit the state’s troubled retirement system, which is underfunded by $170 billion.

In 1999, Higgins retired as a state police detective. Since age 51, he has collected pension checks from the State Police Retirement System, which currently pays him $55,000 a year. SPRS rules allow members to retire after 25 years of service, regardless of age.

But Higgins never really retired. The month before that “retirement” took effect, he was hired by the Sussex County sheriff as an investigator. He quickly enrolled in another state pension plan, the Public Employees Retirement System. Higgins remained in PERS when he left the sheriff’s office in 2003 to join the county prosecutor’s staff in a similar position.

For 16 years, Higgins has collected a Sussex County salary – $101,696 in 2014 – plus his SPRS pension. Last year, his two streams of income from public coffers added up to $156,746.

At age 67, Higgins has decided to retire again – this time as a detective sergeant in the county prosecutor's office. But it’s not a garden-variety retirement based on his length of service.

Instead, it’s a disability retirement – a type of pension that will pay him more than he would have otherwise received. It was approved by the PERS board of trustees in closed session last month.

The full story is online at http://watchdog.org/207540/new-jersey-double-dipper/.