Friday, February 13, 2009

Republican Lawmakers Question Governor's Appointment

The Commonwealth has yet to see a dime from the Federal Stimulus plan and already Governor Patrick has hired a $150,000 a year "stimulus-spending czar." Along with that, the Patrick Administration has committed $400,000 of taxpayer money to an accounting firm to oversee how the money is allocated.

Both the Boston Herald and Boston Globe have interesting articles on this appointment. In fact, the hiring of Jeffrey Simon is another example of why the state's pension system needs a complete transformation.

It is crazy that two former state employees such as Simon and recently appointed Transportation Secretary James Aloisi have benefited from such lucrative taxpayer funded pensions. Worse yet, both stand to see a substantial increase in their annual pension as a result of the high paying positions they were both recently appointed to by the Patrick Administration.