Some, in fact, have tried to do away with the windfall feature for legislators who turn bureaucrats, but the bills have a strange way of never passing. Among House members voting no was Rep. Carl Littlefield, R-Dade City, recently appointed deputy secretary of the Department of Elder Affairs. The bill, applying only to officials elected after January 1998, would have required separate pension calculations for elected and non-elected service. Rep. Stan Bainter, R-Eustis, who has introduced or supported reform legislation for 10 years, says he doesn't mind good pensions for politicians who leave to become department heads. Bainter said he hopes the law can be changed in 2001, when because of term limits nearly half the House will be freshmen.
Timing is everything.
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