Pension Battle

[ls317]

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- A "whites only" sign was still hanging on the precinct house water fountain in 1964 when James Booker joined the suburban College Park police force.
J.L. Booker, who served 32 years with the College Park Police Department, works part-time to make ends meet.

He soon learned it wasn't the only thing off limits to Georgia's new black recruits.

Until 1976, black officers were blocked from joining a state-supported supplemental police retirement fund.

Today, white officers who entered the fund before that year are taking home hundreds of dollars more every month in retirement benefits than their black counterparts.

The now-retired black officers have been lobbying hard to change that, but eight years after they began an effort to amend the state constitution and give them credit for those lost years is stalled in the Legislature.

The Georgia Constitution prohibits the state from extending new benefits to public employees after they have retired.

If lawmakers don't take action in the final weeks of the legislative session, the battle will move to the courthouse this spring, said state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, an Atlanta Democrat and civil rights activist leading the officers' campaign.

"I was hoping we wouldn't have to go this route, but litigation appears to be our only option," Brooks said.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/01/black.officers.pension.ap/index.html

[speedoo]

1. Do you have a link?

I'd really like to know more about this.