Wanggaard: Double Dipper

Wanggaard proving once
a cop, always a cop.

Bruce Murphy, recently of Milwaukee Magazine, has found a new home on Urban Milwaukee, which should make for an interesting combination.

Anyway, Murphy has revived his Murphy's Law column and is first story is about the double dipping of Representative Van Wanggaard, who is collecting a policeman's pension, a legislator's salary and a per diem, all on the tax payers dime, even though he voted to kill the same benefits for others:

Wangaard downplays his union roots: his 2010 campaign bio was quite long and detailed, but omitted any mention of his union jobs. He was a Racine police officer from 1972-2001, earning lifetime health insurance and a fine pension. After serving 29 years, he would have earned around 62 percent of his final average salary, which for a Traffic Investigator (his last position with the department), would have been in the neighborhood of $54,000, an insider with the Racine Police Department estimated. That would put Wanggaard’s annual pension at around $33,000. In an interview, Wanggaard conceded this was an accurate estimate.

Wanggaard is now double dipping from the government, earning $49,943 as a legislator plus $88 “per diem” for each day the legislature is in session. (The average legislator earns an additional $7,700 per year from this.) He could also earn an additional pension, but this would require him to freeze his retiree pay and Wanggaard says he preferred to continue collecting on his pension, so he is forgoing all state benefits that accrue to legislators.

Since Scott Walker has come out against double-dipping, I'm sure that his condemnation, as well as those of the zombie parrot echo chamber's, will be forthcoming. As soon as he's done kissing wealthy wingnut widows and Koch bottoms, that is.