RSS Feed of the blog

Contributors:

Reporter William March has covered state and national politics since 1994. Email

Reporter Mike Salinero has covered Hillsborough County government for The Tampa Tribune since 2007. Email

Reporter Lindsay Peterson has been a general assignment reporter at the Tampa Tribune since 2005, focusing on higher education since 2009. Email

TBO RNC 2012 Section

Florida Political Blogs:

• State Of Sunshine
• Pushing Rope
• Interstate4Jamming
• News Service of Florida
• FLA Politics
• Sayfie Review/

News Blog Search

Advanced Search

Most Recent Entries

• How come the poll results don’t match?
• Q Poll: Mack has long lead in primary, ties Nelson in general matchup
• Mack campaign retracts Fortuno endorsement quotes
• Coburn backs LeMieux, answering Mack’s Fortuno
• Q Poll: Romney has significant lead in Florida
• Storm The Swarm: SOCCENT deputy chief asks for technology to stop threat of Iranian small boats
• Nelson disses Obama on Castro daughter
• Hoyer to campaign with Ehrlich
• Mack dumbest speaker in Congress?  It’s complicated
• Guetzloe sentenced for not filing tax returns
• Mack asks feds to investigate LeMieux appointment
• Pentagon Reports Deaths of 7 Troops This Week in Support of Operation Enduring Freedom
• Mack demands investigation of LeMieux appointment
• Ross backs Mack
• LeMieux wins East Hillsborough GOP straw poll

More

• Breaking News
• Command Post Tampa
• Fact Finders - Databay Blog
• Guestbook: Remembering The Fallen Soldiers
• Fresh Squeezed Politics
• RNC 2012: The Road to Tampa
• Political Safari

Monthly Archives

• May 2012
• April 2012
• March 2012
• February 2012
• January 2012
• December 2011

Martinez eligible for congressional pension

Posted Aug 11, 2009 by William March

Updated Aug 11, 2009 at 11:59 AM

Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, who just announced he’s retiring early from his seat, will still be eligible for full congressional pension benefits because he reached age 62 while in office.

Martinez turned 62 in October, 2008.

He has served four years and about seven months in the Senate, and prior to that had served almost three years as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), members of Congress elected after 1984 become vested for pension benefits at age 62 after five years of government service.

Martinez will get a pension based on his highest three years’ salary, which means his most recent three years in the Senate. The current salary is $174,000;
Cabinet secretaries made less than that during Martinez’s tenure there from January, 2001-December, 2003.

MOP doesn’t feel competent to estimate the actual amount of Martinez’s pension.

But according to the most recent CRS analysis of the pension program, the amount will be determined by a formula that multiplies the average pay from his top three years times his total years of service—about seven years and six months—times 1.7 percent.