The Blogster misses John Rowland, the disgraced former governor who served 10 months in the federal slam for accepting luxury air charters from Key Air of Oxford. His resignation was effective July 1, 2004 after a wild seven months of denials, public requests for “fairness and transparency,” a House Committee of Inquiry and a state Supreme Court ruling that essentially forced his resignation.
Rowland’s buddy William Tomasso (30-month sentence on conspiracy to commit bribery) got a no-bid $56-million contract to build the Middletown jail for boys called the Connecticut Juvenile Training School. Rowland’s story was typical of our age, although unlike so many, cheating on his wife was not part of the equation.
So did you know that Rowland will not be getting a $50,000-a-year pension when he turns 55 in May of 2012. Nope, according to the applicable state statute, listed below, he’ll start at $51,500 and will enjoy an annual cost-of-living-raise of about 3 percent.
For ironists among Blog-o-rama readers, the 1998 law was the same year that Rowland turned down a pay raise to $150,000 because at the time, it was the spring of a gubernatorial-election year and Barbara Kennelly, then a congresswoman from Connecticut’s First District, was perceived as a big threat. Her candidacy was very weak, to put it mildly and he romped in November.
Here is the complete law from the Connecticut General Statutes
Note subsection c)
Sec. 3-2a. Pensions for Governors and their spouses. (a) Any person who has served as Governor of this state, having been elected to said office or having exercised the powers and authority of said office on the death or resignation of the Governor, and who has attained the age of fifty-five, shall receive an annual pension equal to five thousand dollars for each year or fraction thereof he so served, payable in equal monthly installments for the remainder of his life, provided no such pension shall be payable for any period during which such person serves as, or exercises the powers and authority of, Governor or any other salaried office in the state government. The state shall provide compensation to the surviving spouse of any Governor or former Governor at the rate of one-half the pension to which he was entitled under the provisions of this section or would have been entitled had he survived to the age of fifty-five, payable monthly in equal installments for the remainder of such surviving spouse’s life. If any former Governor or surviving spouse of a former Governor is eligible for a pension under any other provision of state law, the amount of such pension shall be deducted from the pension payable under this section.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a), the increase in the annual pension for Governors and in the compensation to surviving spouses of Governors, effective on January 1, 1979, shall not apply to the Governor in office on July 7, 1977, or to such Governor’s spouse.
(c) On July 1, 1998, and on July first of each subsequent year, any person who has served as Governor of this state on and after January 6, 1999, having been elected to said office or having exercised the powers and authority of said office on the death or resignation of the Governor, and who has attained the age of fifty-five, shall be entitled, in addition to the annual pension to which such Governor is entitled under subsection (a) of this section, to an annual cost of living allowance which reflects the increase, if any, in the national consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers for the previous twelve-month period, provided such cost of living allowance shall not exceed three per cent. Such cost of living allowance shall be computed on the basis of the combined retirement salary and cost of living allowances, if any, to which such person was entitled as of the June thirtieth immediately preceding.