{"id":14982,"date":"2016-06-03T00:40:33","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T00:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=14982"},"modified":"2016-06-03T00:40:33","modified_gmt":"2016-06-03T00:40:33","slug":"governor-comptroller-right-to-end-severance-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=14982","title":{"rendered":"Governor, comptroller right to end &#8216;severance pay&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/abbott.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-14770\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/abbott-300x209.jpg\" alt=\"abbott\" width=\"300\" height=\"209\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/abbott-300x209.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/abbott.jpg 647w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Why did it take a controversy to get the Texas governor and the state comptroller of public accounts to do the right thing?<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Greg Abbott and Comptroller Glenn Hegar have ordered state agencies to end the practice of granting what&#8217;s been called &#8220;emergency leave&#8221; pay for public employees who left their public-sector jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s call it what it was: severance pay.<\/p>\n<p>Someone leaves public employment voluntarily\u00a0and then collects pay even though he or she is no longer on the job?<\/p>\n<p>Ridiculous!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2016\/06\/01\/governor-comptroller-orders-agencies-stop-pay-depa\/\">https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2016\/06\/01\/governor-comptroller-orders-agencies-stop-pay-depa\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The issue blew up when Attorney General Ken Paxton &#8212; the guy who&#8217;s got his own share of legal difficulties with which he must contend &#8212; paid\u00a0two former top assistants after\u00a0they had left the AG&#8217;s office. It turns out that the General Land Office did the same thing.<\/p>\n<p>Abbott\u00a0and Hegar&#8217;s directive stipulates that it will remain in effect until the Legislature decides how to handle it.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s an idea for legislators to heed: Ban it forthwith. Make it illegal to pay these kinds of severance packages to public employees who <em>resign their jobs voluntarily.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I trust we&#8217;re clear on that.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why did it take a controversy to get the Texas governor and the state comptroller of public accounts to do the right thing? Gov. Greg Abbott and Comptroller Glenn Hegar have ordered state agencies to end the practice of granting what&#8217;s been called &#8220;emergency leave&#8221; pay for public employees who left their public-sector jobs. Let&#8217;s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=14982\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Governor, comptroller right to end &#8216;severance pay&#8217;<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[6274,2006,2652,6260,4653,4728],"class_list":["post-14982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news","tag-emergency-leave-pay","tag-greg-abbott","tag-ken-paxton","tag-severance-pay","tag-texas-legislature","tag-texas-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14983,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14982\/revisions\/14983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}