Politician Tim Guerrette’s $579,751 Taxpayer-Funded Pension Bonus Grab: A Blatant Abuse of Power
How much, if any, of the $579,751 has Guerrette given to Charity?

Documents

In an outrageous exploitation of taxpayer funds, Republican politician Tim Guerrette has pocketed a staggering $579,751 pension bonus from the Collier County Sheriff’s Department. Despite a generous annual salary of $169,041 and additional benefits worth approximately $67,616, Guerrette deemed this insufficient and greedily took advantage of his position to secure this outrageous taxpayer paid payout. See also: https://www.facebook.com/tripledippers

“Sneaky Politician Tim Guerrette is greedy,” noted Dave Jaye, a researcher at www.tripledippers.org, “How many gourmet meals, luxury cars, and vacation homes does one need, or can even use? How much, if any, of this taxpayer-funded windfall has Guerrette donated to charity?”

Guerrette is now running for the position of Supervisor of Elections (SOE) in Collier County, which carries a salary of $177,211 , while he continues to draw an annual pension exceeding $116,000. This would bring his total taxpayer-funded income to an eye-watering $293,211 annually, plus approximately $70,900 in SOE benefits.

In 2016, Guerrette shamelessly exploited his Sheriff Department position to sign “retirement” paperwork to collect an interest bearing pension while still receiving a paycheck for the same job at the same time for 5 years. This move allowed Guerrette to avoid paying the standard 3% salary contribution to the Florida Retirement System, shifting his financial responsibilities onto taxpayers. Tim Guerrette collected $579,751 pension bonus on June 30, 2021. If elected as SOE, Guerrette would continue dodging this 3% contribution, further benefiting from taxpayer money despite his $579,751 pension bonus and over $116,000 a year in taxpayer paid pension ($9,663 a month!) plus health cost subsidies and Cost of Living Increases.

“Tim Guerrette is a hypocrite,” noted Jaye. “He claims to support limited government and fiscal responsibility in his political material, yet Tim Guerrette eagerly lines his pockets with taxpayer dollars – and wants more!.”

Meanwhile, both incumbent Supervisor of Elections, Republican Melissa Blazier and Republican challenger Dave Schaffel have pledged not to accept a pension cash bonus if elected. See documents linked above.

Websites:
https://melissablazier.com/
https://www.schaffelforsupervisor.com/

“Tim Guerrette’s actions are a slap in the face to the average Collier County worker, who earns $59,987 a year ,” Jaye continued. “It would take them over 9.6 years of hard work to match Guerrette’s taxpayer paid pension bonus.”

Tim Guerrette’s $579,751 pension bonus could instead fund 35,987 hours of tutoring for Collier County students, greatly improving their job and college readiness. Currently, 41% of Collier County High School students fail basic reading tests, 44% fail basic math tests, and only 35.8% are college-ready, despite a 91% graduation rate .

Notably, Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk, who knows Tim Guerrette best, has not endorsed him for SOE.

Governor Jim DeSantis signed SB 7024 effective July 1, 2023 allowing the option for politicians and bureaucrats to extend pension bonuses by 60% from 5 to 8 years and up to ten years for School Employees . The Triple Dipper Pension Bonus system created $39 billion in unfunded Florida Retirement obligations, amounting to a $1,725 liability for every man, woman, and child in Florida.

This website maintains an online repository of tens of thousands of Tripedipper records that are available via the top menu. Here is a list of 28,432 tripledippers from June 2024.

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