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NewsJune 6, 1998

Gov. Mel Carnahan Friday vetoed a bill that would have hiked pensions for Missouri legislators. Area lawmakers praised Carnahan's action. "He did the right thing," said state Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau. Kinder and state Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau, were among a majority of lawmakers who voted for the pension bill as the session wound down. But they joined other Democratic and Republican lawmakers later in urging Carnahan to veto the bill...

Gov. Mel Carnahan Friday vetoed a bill that would have hiked pensions for Missouri legislators.

Area lawmakers praised Carnahan's action.

"He did the right thing," said state Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau.

Kinder and state Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau, were among a majority of lawmakers who voted for the pension bill as the session wound down. But they joined other Democratic and Republican lawmakers later in urging Carnahan to veto the bill.

Kasten said she was "relieved" that the governor killed the measure.

Area lawmakers, including Kinder and Kasten, said such pension plans need to come under more scrutiny.

Carnahan vetoed the pension boost because no actuarial study was done on its financial impact prior to the vote. Such a study is required by law.

"This was a significant flaw," Carnahan spokesman Chris Sifford told The Associated Press.

Sifford said the governor would have risked a court challenge if he had agreed to boost lawmakers' pensions.

Days after the Legislature adjourned on May 15, a New York firm's analysis projected the pension hike would have cost $1.6 million a year.

Some veteran lawmakers stood to make about three times as much money from the state in retirement as they earned in their last year of legislative service. The biggest beneficiary would have been Rep. Gene Copeland, D-New Madrid, the Legislature's senior member.

Copeland, who is retiring after more than three decades in the House, would have received an estimated $79,000 annual pension.

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Reached Friday at his Gulf Shores, Ala., residence, Copeland said he would have liked to have had the extra money. "I know something coming out of the blue like that, and that much money, is hard for people to understand," he said.

But Copeland said lawmakers deserve higher pensions. He said his pension would have been much higher than most lawmakers because he has served in the Legislature so long.

"I am an unusual case," he said.

The veto means Copeland will have to settle for an annual pension of $34,200, several lawmakers said.

It would have increased lawmakers' pensions from $150 a month to $200 a month for each two-year session they served in the Legislature.

Rep. Joe Heckemeyer, D-Sikeston, voted for the pension boost. Heckemeyer said a $50-a-month increase is justified.

But Heckemeyer said he and other lawmakers weren't aware that the measure also would have provided 4 percent cost-of-living adjustments for each year legislators served after they turned 55 years of age.

Heckemeyer said the cost-of-living adjustments aren't reasonable. He said senior lawmakers would have been "padding their pockets" through such a provision.

Heckemeyer said Carnahan made the right decision to veto the measure.

Reps. David Schwab and Patrick Naeger both voted against the bill.

"It was just written to benefit a few people," said Schwab, R-Jackson. "That is wrong."

Schwab said it is wrong for lawmakers to vote themselves pay raises of any kind, including pensions.

Naeger, R-Perryville, said lawmakers shouldn't receive pensions that are higher than their annual salaries. "I get real squeamish about pay raises and anything that pads my pocket," he said.

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