Ex-lawmaker scores both a state job, full pension check

The obscure provision passed by the Legislature in 1999 enabled Bassett to accept a high-paying job as the chairman and executive director of the Essex Regional Retirement Board without giving up a dime of his $41,000-a-year state pension from a previous job. In effect, lawmakers decreed Bassett could receive a retiree's pension without being retired.

State law generally prohibits such practices for the vast majority of state retirees, who are required to accept reductions in their retirement benefits if they take new jobs. But the pension laws are frequently poked and tweaked by lawmakers for individual cases, demonstrating how the clubby politics of Beacon Hill frequently trumps attempts at reforms such as the pension legislation proposed by Governor Deval Patrick.

In Bassett's case, his gift came directly from one of the most powerful politicians of the time, former House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, according to a lawmaker involved in crafting Bassett's amendment. Bassett secured Finneran's handwritten support for the provision on a piece of yellow legal paper, which he presented to Representative Harriet L. Stanley, for inclusion in a package of budget amendments, Stanley said.

Stanley, in an interview in her State House office last week, recalled that Finneran's note said something to this effect: "We are going to do this for Tim. Put it in the budget."

Finneran recently expressed surprise about the provision, which has thus far enabled Bassett, 61, of Marblehead, to earn about $328,000 in retirement compensation he otherwise could not have received.

"I have absolutely no memory of that," said Finneran, when shown a copy of the amendment. "But, wow, it's a lot of money. Not a bad outcome for Timmy Bassett. Not bad at all."

Bassett would not answer directly when asked if he lobbied anyone in the Legislature for the special provision. "That's the way the statute is written," he responded. Asked again, he repeated his answer. "That's the way the statute is written."

Bassett later canceled an appointment for a follow-up interview and instead issued a statement: "I have spent my entire adult life in public service and hopefully I have done some good."

Bassett's pension of $41,000 a year was confirmed by state records. Bassett repeatedly refused to disclose his salary as board chairman and executive director. William Martineau, a longtime retirement board member who helps set Bassett's salary, said Bassett is paid about $123,000 annually.

Martineau said he did not know about the special provision written into the law for Bassett until told about it last week by the Globe.

"I didn't think anyone had that kind of power," he said. "That's pretty good. I know I don't have the ability to do that. I didn't think anyone did."

The amendment allowing Bassett to keep both a government pension and a government salary does not refer to Bassett by name, but instead authorizes "the Essex County treasurer," an elected job that Bassett held at the time, to become chairman and executive director of the Essex Regional Retirement board without incurring any pension penalties for the additional income.

At the time, Stanley, a West Newbury Democrat, was assistant vice chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, which writes the budget. She said she did not believe the measure was appropriate, but she nonetheless inserted it because she felt she was not in a position to buck Finneran.

"That's how it got in," she said after being contacted by the Globe and presented with documents showing the roles she and Finneran played.

Stanley, a onetime Finneran ally, was dumped by Finneran as a chair of the Health Care Committee in 2003 because of her increasing insistence on acting independently. This year, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo appointed her to chair of the Health Care Financing Committee.

Bassett has been in politics since 1972. Elected to the House of Representatives from Lynn in his early 20s, he became a protégé of then-House Speaker Thomas W. McGee of Lynn, and rose quickly to chair the Commerce and Labor Committee. At about the same time, Finneran was moving up in the House as chair of the Banks and Banking Committee.

Bassett was tapped by former governor Michael S. Dukakis to head the state the Government Land Bank in 1985. A quasi-public agency, the Land Bank - now known as the Massachusetts Development Authority - was tasked with various development projects, including transforming Fort Devens in Ayer from military to civilian use.

The Land Bank board of directors fired Bassett in 1995, when Paul Cellucci, then lieutenant governor, moved his own political ally into that position. The fact that Bassett was fired made him eligible for an enhanced pension under another controversial section of state law which allows fired employees to begin collecting early pensions at a higher rate of pay.

The provision allowed Bassett to increase his pension from about $23,000 to $41,000 annually, and collect immediately, at age 47. Retirees also get medical benefits for life.

Bassett, whose salary as Land Bank director increased from $47,000 to $106,000 in his 10-year tenure, also received a generous severance package worth more than $225,000, including deferred payments, according to Massachusetts Development records.

In 1996, Bassett won election as Essex County treasurer. He was able to keep his pension then because of the provision of state law that allows elected officials to keep their full public pensions.

But three years later, a new law championed by then-Governor William F. Weld eliminated five of the state's most dysfunctional county governments, wiping out Bassett's elected Essex County treasurer job in the process.

But the law simultaneously named him the executive director of the newly created Essex Regional Retirement Board.

Finneran last week called Bassett's pension "a sweetheart deal" and said he could not think of a public policy justification for it.

But the former speaker, who, as host of a talk radio show on WRKO often rails against pension abuses on-air, said he would not call on Bassett to relinquish his benefits.

Said Finneran, "If the law says it is allowed, then I am not going to tell him to give it up."

Sean Murphy's e-mail is smurphy@globe.com