Military Pension Fraud Waste

I think most people have no idea how much and how many triple dippers there are. Most military retirees, especially the upper ranks of officers and senior NCOs are getting a full retirement plus a 60% to 90% disability. Keep in mind that all disabilities are tax free. Its total abuse right now of the system. I know retired COLs and NCOs that have never been to war with 90% disability on top of a $85,0000 retirement.

And right now the only people hired in the government are vets that are 30% or greater disable. I work with an office of retired NCOs and LTCs all making anywhere from $120,000 to $170,000 ayear. Plus you have the group that are retired officers that are part of the military complex of northrop, boeing......that are making big bucks with disability and full military retirements. They are totally out of touch with the rest of the of our country. They have Tri-care health and pay next to nothing in heatlh care.......

Don't get me wrong. I am a vet my self with 7 years in the service, but the fraud is unbelievble. If you have sleep apnea you can get 60% disability and it has nothing to do with a war injury and they all know how to work the system. The young soldiers that were disabled due to the war are the ones getting screwed. They get next to nothing and are not the ones getting the government jobs.....its all who you know. I have all the compassion in the world for an injured soldier from Iraq or Afganistan.....but that is not what a lot of these disabilities are about.

I was an officer in the military before all this fraud started. The reason you could retire at 20 years with a pension was because it could be a physically tough life with wear and tear on your body. What other job lets you retire at 38 to 43years of age with a pension? But all the stuff going on now is total abuse. It makes me sick to be around it.

70% - 100% With ChildrenDependent Status70%80%90%100%

Veteran with Spouse & Child	$1,459	$1,692	$1,902	$3,037
Veteran with Child Only	$1,344	$1,561	$1,754	$2,873
Veteran with Spouse, One Parent and Child	$1,545	$1,791	$2,013	$3,161
Veteran with Spouse, Two Parents and Child	$1,631	$1,890	$2,124	$3,285
Veteran with One Parent and Child	$1,430	$1,660	$1,865	$2,997
Veteran with Two Parents and Child	$1,516	$1,759	$1,976	$3,121
Add for Each Additional Child Under Age 18	$53	$61	$69	$77
Each Additional Schoolchild Over Age 18 (see footnotea)	$173	$198	$223	$248
Additional for A/A spouse (see footnote b)	$99	$112	$127	$141

CalTrain Salaries Rise as Service Plummets

Great story by San Jose Mercury News exposing how over paid our public workers are.

Caltrain employee pay rises even during rocky time

Excerpts:

• Even as Caltrain executives warned that the commuter railroad was heading off a proverbial cliff because of financial woes, their spending has risen considerably in one area: their own pay.
• Caltrain's administrative payroll has grown 14 percent over the past three years, a period when officials have said they were seeking to cut spending, according to documents obtained by the Bay Area News Group. The extra money spent on salaries would be enough to pay the cost of running the railroad on the weekends -- a service Caltrain has said it may have to discontinue to balance its budget.
• When benefits are added in, total compensation jumped 34 percent -- enough to also save service to Gilroy plus a few weekday trains. Salary information for nonadministrators, such as conductors and engineers, was not available, as these employees work for Amtrak.
• By comparison, SamTrans, which runs San Mateo County's bus service, saw its total pay for all employees increase 7 percent during that span. BART says its administrators' salaries rose 5 percent, and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority says pay for administrators grew 2 percent. National inflation was 5 to 6 percent.
• Figuring out who exactly works for Caltrain -- and how much they get paid -- turns out to be an excruciating task. Virtually all the rail line's 190 listed administrators split time working for SamTrans and the transportation authority in a downtown San Carlos headquarters. The time sheets for employees can be convoluted.
• The employees listed on the Caltrain payroll in the fiscal year that ended in June earned a total average salary of $77,300, roughly half of it coming for work related to the railroad. Three years ago, Caltrain employees earned an average total of $59,900.
  
• The highest-paid staffer on the Caltrain payroll is Bob Doty, who heads the agency's collaboration with the California High-Speed Rail Authority. He saw the Caltrain portion of his paycheck increase from $136,781 to $154,585.
• More than twice as many Caltrain officials now earn six-figure salaries: 58 this year, up from 26 in 2007. In addition, 27 people now earn more than $80,000 just from the Caltrain portion of their paycheck, up from 18.

"That's crazy -- I haven't been getting raises the past few years," said Caltrain rider Jennifer Durham, a Sunnyvale resident who works in San Mateo. "People should be paid appropriately. But making sure the money actually goes to providing service is what I'd be focusing on."