Public pensions& Right to know

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Public+pensions%3A+Our+right+to+know&articleId=a12dbed8-ad1b-4d0c-88ec-d6f4cfb7e376

In Massachusetts, taxpayers can easily check to see which public
employees receive the biggest pension payments. It's a matter of
public record. After lawsuits, some local jurisdictions in New York
and California are releasing that information, too. Not New Hampshire,
though.

It isn't supposed to be this way. Pension payments are public
information under New Hampshire's right-to-know law. Maddeningly, the
New Hampshire Retirement System (NHRS) refuses to release this public
information, despite a court order to do so.

The Union Leader has filed a right-to-know request asking that the
system release the names of the 500 retirement system members who have
received the highest annual pension payments, as well as the amounts
of those payments. We won in court. "Any payments made to state
employees that have retired are subject to mandatory disclosure,"
Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge David Garfunkle ruled on
Sept. 2.

And still the retirement system won't release the information. It is
challenging Garfunkle's finding that the system incorrectly argued
that it was not covered by the right-to-know law.

"To include only current employees within the scope of the statute, as
NHRS argues, would render the statute completely meaningless because
no records would fall within its purview," he wrote.

This same fight is being played out around the country as news
organizations are being made to go to court for information that is or
should be public under the law.

It's no wonder why pension systems are fighting to keep the
information private. In California, a former Kern County fire chief
was recently revealed to have an annual pension payment of $232,000.
The newly retired assistant chief of the San Francisco Police
Department will bring home a pension of $225,000 a year.

Figures like these upset the public, and understandably so. Because of
that, the New Hampshire Retirement System doesn't want the public to
know who gets how much in public pension payments each year. But it is
going to have to release the information. The law requires it.
Retirement system officials ought to know that fighting the law to
keep the public in the dark will only upset the people more.

--
Urvashi Sharma

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