Another LIRR Pension Scandal Brewing
The LIRR is one of the nation’s biggest commuter rail systems and the New York Times uncovered massive pension fraud in a 2008 expose.
Think about what a billion dollars could do for the LIRR. That’s a one followed by nine zeroes. 1,000,000,000.
It could buy a solvent pension system that does what it was intended to do by servicing all eligible employees in a fair and just manner.
It could buy hundreds of railcars.
It could upgrade signal and rail systems.
It could renovate stations throughout the system to bring them up to modern standards.
Instead, it’s a billion dollars that was siphoned silently from the system and commuters and taxpayers paid for it.
Now, investigators have to attempt to claw back the ill-gotten gains and take criminal actions against all those involved. It means that the agency will likely get back only a fraction of that amount, but it’s still better than nothing. LIRR commuters deserve as much; they deserve a chance to recoup these costs from these defendants.