Broke L.A. Cuts Million Dollar Checks to Cops and Firefighters

Posted on Mar 22, 2013

John Liu (CC-BY)

A little-known pension scheme in the City of Angels lets public safety workers double-dip at the taxpayers’ expense.

The Deferred Retirement Option Plan allows longtime police and firefighters who game the system right to retire with lump sum payments that average around $300,000, but go as high as $1 million. This in a city that is running at least $150 million in the red.

Voters in L.A. recently rejected a half-cent sales tax increase that would have helped reduce the city’s budget deficit.

Local public television station KCET has been reporting on the DROP pension scandal:

—Posted by Peter Z. Scheer. Follow him on Twitter: @peesch.

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