The law Vince Fumo opposed 31 years ago is now revoking his state pension. Maybe he was preparing to be a crook 31 years ago.
The state recently notified former State Sentor Vincent Fumo that he won’t be making his $100,500 annual pension while serving his 55 months in prison, nor after.
Because he robbed millions from charities while working as a “public servant,” and a federal court finally convicted him, Fumo must forfeit his legislative pension, according to the Inquirer.
State law says that legislators forfeit their pensions if convicted of certain crimes related to their official duties, like say, stealing taxpayer money to live in luxury while pretending to serve the public.
Only eight senators voted against that law 31 years ago. Fumo was one of them. Three months into his legislative career, he claimed that taking away the pension from a convicted-felon legislator was unconstitutional.
Sounds like 1978 Fumo was already making preparations for 2008 Fumo.
We would be interested to go back in time and listen to his argument that the law was unconstitutional. Since taxpayer money paid his checks, it stands to reason that the taxpayers should get their money back, or at least know that he’s no longer thriving off of it, after he is convicted of stealing from said taxpayers (also known as his boss).
Despite the fact that he won’t be getting his $8,371 monthly check any more, he still might get a lump sum retirement check because he is entitled to the amount he paid into the system through payroll deductions, but he is not entitled to the accumulated interest.
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That would be $115,750, said the Inquirer, but that before the $58,750 he’s collected since his December retirement is taken back.
So Fumo could end up with no more than $57,000.
Fumo was convicted of 137 corruption counts, including conspiracy, fraud, tax offenses, and obstruction of justice for robbing the Senate and two charities out of more than $4 million.
He was sentenced to 55 months on July 15 and reports to prison at the end of the month.
