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Friday, September 17, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Retired lawmakers seek higher benefits
By Sean Whaley
Donrey Capital Bureau
CARSON CITY -- A 300 percent pension increase approved and then rescinded by a politically unnerved 1989 Legislature was the focus of discussion by the Supreme Court on Thursday, as two retired lawmakers who had temporarily received the higher benefits sought to have them restored.
It was almost exactly 10 years after the fact that the court heard the claims by former lawmakers Dave Nicholas and Bob Craddock that they were entitled to the higher retirement benefits generated by the short-lived and infamous 300 percent legislative pension increase.
The increase took effect after the Legislature in late June 1989 overrode a veto by then-Gov. Bob Miller and put the increase into law. Between then and Nov. 21, when the increase was repealed in a special session of the Legislature, several former lawmakers, including Craddock and Nicholas, retired and temporarily received the higher benefits.
Both Craddock and Nicholas had last served as lawmakers in 1987 and had not voted on the pension increase. Craddock is now 68. Nicholas is 69.
The temporary change in the law for lawmakers increased the pension from $25 to $100 a month for each year of service.
Craddock said his pension was initially $1,344 a month, but it was reduced to $325 a month after the increase was repealed. Nicholas did not have the exact figures, but his pension went from about $1,100 a month to about $300.
Attorneys Debbie Robinson, representing Nicholas, and Dan Markoff, representing Craddock, told the justices that the two men deserved the higher pensions they received upon retiring 10 years ago.
"It doesn't matter whether AB820 (the pension bill) was a good piece of legislation or a bad piece of legislation," Robinson told the court. "It is a fiction for anyone to argue that these appellants were not vested under AB820."
The court, some members of whom appeared sympathetic to the arguments of the retired lawmakers' attorneys, will rule later in the case.
Deputy Attorney General Bob Auer, representing the state in the case, faced some tough questioning by justices.
Both Nicholas and Craddock were present for the hearing.
"We feel just fine about it," Robinson said afterward.
Craddock said it was great to finally see his case presented to the Supreme Court after so long. "The questions the court asked are the same questions I've been asking for years," he said.
Both Craddock and Nicholas lost their cases at the District Court level.
Judge Gerard Bongiovanni ruled against Craddock in 1995, saying the former Assemblyman took a calculated risk by retiring when the increase was in effect.
Nicholas, a former Assemblyman who initially filed a lawsuit with 11 other lawmakers to get the increase restored, also lost his case in 1995 before then-District Judge Deborah Agosti. Agosti, now a Supreme Court justice, did not hear the appeal.
The state so far has won every case filed by lawmakers who sought the higher pension increase.
The most controversial case involved former Sen. Don Mello, who served in the Legislature in 1989 and who voted for the pension and retired with the higher benefits. Mello lost the higher pension when the increase was repealed, and his case was rejected by the Supreme Court in 1994.
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