A local member of the Mississippi House of Representatives is considering resigning from his newly-elected position because of his belief that Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn is going against state law by blocking him and other members of the Legislature from receiving their state government pensions while serving in the House.
Republican Billy Andrews of Purvis, who represents House District 87, said Gunn is going against an opinion issued by former Attorney General Jim Hood – and Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi regulations – that says state House members can serve part-time in that position while still collecting PERS retirement benefits.
“I have not resigned yet, but at some point I might, because in our opinion, it’s not in accordance with the law to continue to pay us as they are,” said Andrews, who served as a Lamar County judge before being elected to the House in November. “The PERS regulations and the law say that we’re allowed to be paid less and to keep our retirement benefits.”
For several years, PERS regulations prohibited elected officials at the state level from receiving salaries and pensions at the same time, but in November 2018, Hood issued a nonbinding legal opinion contradicting that rule. Approximately a year later, the PERS board concurred with Hood’s opinion, implementing a rule that said state retirees could collect both salaries and pensions while serving in the Legislature.
But Andrews said after he and other legislators were sworn in to their seats in January, Gunn and other House leadership told them they would not be able to do so. As a result, Republican Rep. Ramona Blackledge resigned from her seat earlier this month.
“They said, ‘We’re not going to pay you any different; we’re going to pay you the same as other legislators,’” Andrews said. “That’s in violation of the PERS regulations, so in essence (Blackledge) had to choose to stop drawing her retirement and serve in the Legislature, or resign from the Legislature and continue to draw her retirement. So she resigned.”
Andrews said other than himself and Blackledge, two other members of the House are in a similar situation.
“At some point, I may well resign,” he said. “(Legal action) may be an option; we haven’t decided whether to take any legal action or not. I don’t have (a time frame for a decision). I might resign as early as next week, and I might resign at the end of the session. I haven’t decided.”
Gunn recently told the Associated Press that he is going by a law that was passed in the early 1950s.
“It’s not Philip Gunn enforcing anything or making them do anything,” he said. “I’m simply following the law. The law has been in place since 1952.”
