
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 2, 1991                   TAG: 9104020094
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

HOUSE TO SEE HEFTY PENSION INCREASE

House members who retire from Congress after the next election will get a hefty pension increase - as much as $7,000 annually for a 12-year veteran - because of the big pay raise they voted themselves last year.

Those who came to Congress before 1980 are eligible for a second sweetener if they retire next year. They may legally pocket leftover campaign cash, a privilege that will expire at the end of the current term.

The pension increase is triggered by a 29.5 percent pay raise that boosted House members' salaries from $96,600 last year to $125,100 this year.

"The pensions are ridiculously generous," said David Keating, executive vice president of the anti-spending, anti-tax National Taxpayers Union.

"What's particularly unfair about the pay raise is it turns a pension into a gold mine for incumbents who hang on for two more years," said Keating. He said the House should have changed its pension formula to avoid the windfall.

Pensions for House members are calculated in part on the basis of an average of lawmakers' three highest-salaried years. Thus, the salary increase for 1991 and 1992 provides a big jump in the pension they're entitled to.

The right to pocket leftover campaign money is available to House members who were in office before Jan. 8, 1980, and applies to money in their coffers as of Nov. 30, 1989.

That means 165 senior House members are eligible to convert $41 million in campaign surpluses to their personal use if they leave Congress by Jan. 3, 1993.

by CNB