By Justin Graeber
Enterprise Staff Writer
Posted Oct 03, 2012 @ 09:30 PM
Last update Oct 03, 2012 @ 09:32 PM
Read more: http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/x383194630/11th-Plymouth-district-candidates-square-off-over-state-pension#ixzz28MWLPF2a
EASTON —
The Republican candidate for state representative in the 11th Plymouth District is saying, if elected, he would opt out of the state pension system.
“I’m putting my money where my mouth is,” Dan Murphy of Easton, the GOP contender, said in a statement this week.
But his Democratic opponent called the move “symbolic” and said it would have little benefit to taxpayers.
“Dan offers a symbolic gesture,” said Claire Cronin, also of Easton.
“Real benefit will come by actually solving the problems within the pension system, eliminating fraud and abuse, while honoring past commitments and making the system sustainable over time,” she said.
Murphy said he would place his savings into a private retirement account, and he hoped the “small gesture” would save taxpayers money.
“I believe that holding elected office should not be a career, but rather it should be a point in a person’s life that, together with their work in the private sector and the community service can make a positive difference,” Murphy wrote in his statement. “I am going to the Statehouse to be a fiscal watchdog for the taxpayers, not a burden.”
Cronin said, if elected, she will give up her law business to devote her energies to Beacon Hill full-time.
Murphy has said he will retain his Easton-based tax, accounting and payroll business.
The 11th Plymouth District was redrawn after the 2010 Census and consists of Ward 1, Precinct D of Ward 3, and Precincts C and D of Ward 7, in Brockton, in Plymouth County, and Precincts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, of the town of Easton, in Bristol County.
Murphy and Cronin are competing for an open seat left by Democrat Geraldine Creedon of Brockton, who declined to seek re-election.
Read more: http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/x383194630/11th-Plymouth-district-candidates-square-off-over-state-pension#ixzz28MWVdGL9
