Don’t let the title of this post fool you. It’s not about AIG.

In Philapelphia, the city council has been collecting quite a nice perk. Under the previous mayor, a program called DROP was started.

(DROP) allows workers to pick a retirement date four years in the future, freeze their pension benefit at that point, and begin to accrue payments as if they had already retired. The payments go into an account collecting 4.5 percent annual interest for the retiree, and are paid out in a lump sum upon retirement. (LINK)

How much is this costing the city?

Thirteen elected officials have already collected or will take home $4.6 million through DROP lump-sums by 2012. That includes $2.1 million by six Council members: Verna ($571,679); Tasco ($467,566); Frank DiCicco ($392,194); Jack Kelly ($299,163); Donna Reed Miller ($190,099); and Frank Rizzo ($189,873).

Regardless of the merits of this program for regular city workers, this is just not right.

The most controversial issue surrounding DROP is the ability of elected officials to collect their lump sums, then return to serve, as Councilwoman Joan Krajewski and City Commissioner Marge Tartaglione did last year after winning reelection in 2007.

Greed lives in many forms and in many places outside of Wall Street.

Mayor Nutter is fighting back. I wish him luck.  He is getting a lot of resistance from the sitting powers.

I loved this line. Councilwoman Anna Verna, who received over half a million dollars said,

I think I’m entitled to it.

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