Post by pavel on Feb 11, 2016 0:53:02 GMT -6
SANTA FE – The House voted 38-29 to pass a plan to bolster police ranks across New Mexico – and specifically in Albuquerque – by allowing retired law enforcement officers to return to work while still collecting their pension benefits.
Backers of the legislation, House Bill 171, say the measure was carefully crafted so as not to financially affect the state’s public retirement system and is urgently needed to address officer shortages and, in turn, reduce violent crime rates.
“There’s that perception that open season has been declared on law enforcement officers,” Rep. Larry Larrañaga, R-Albuquerque, the bill’s sponsor, said during Wednesday’s debate. “It’s getting harder and harder to recruit.”
But Democratic critics of the bill that would reopen the door to a practice commonly referred to as double dipping pointed out that New Mexico lawmakers just enacted a solvency fix in 2013 to shore up the state’s pension fund, the Public Employees Retirement Association.
Read more: www.abqjournal.com/721920/news/house-oks-returntowork-bill.html
Backers of the legislation, House Bill 171, say the measure was carefully crafted so as not to financially affect the state’s public retirement system and is urgently needed to address officer shortages and, in turn, reduce violent crime rates.
“There’s that perception that open season has been declared on law enforcement officers,” Rep. Larry Larrañaga, R-Albuquerque, the bill’s sponsor, said during Wednesday’s debate. “It’s getting harder and harder to recruit.”
But Democratic critics of the bill that would reopen the door to a practice commonly referred to as double dipping pointed out that New Mexico lawmakers just enacted a solvency fix in 2013 to shore up the state’s pension fund, the Public Employees Retirement Association.
Read more: www.abqjournal.com/721920/news/house-oks-returntowork-bill.html