About the Issue

In 1999, when Senator Thomas was halfway through his legislative career, our retirement system’s unfunded liabilities were less than $200 million dollars.  Since then the combined unfunded liabilities of our retirement systems have ballooned to over $20 billion. Senator Thomas did nothing to help solve the problem and actually voted to make it worse.

In 2002 Senator David Thomas and other lawmakers passed S. 163 that allowed legislators to begin taking their retirement while still in office. By taking advantage of this sweetheart deal,  Senator Thomas has taken home $148,000 more than the legislative base pay. To make things worse, legislative pensions are three times their normal legislative salary – meaning that Senator Thomas’s part-time job is paying him more than the average South Carolinian makes full time.

It’s time to tell Senator Thomas that 26 years of self-service in Columbia is enough.