MIAMI – City of Miami commissioners recently voted “yes” to lifetime pensions for themselves, but Miami Mayor Francis Suarez vetoed that decision this week amid an onslaught of public criticism.
“As Mayor and a former City Commissioner, I have historically been opposed to a publicly funded pension system for elected officials,” the mayor wrote in a veto message dated Wednesday.
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Still, Suarez wrote, “Elected officials’ salaries essentially have remained the same since a new form of government was introduced in 1997. This compensation is by many measures outdated and it is understandable that some of my colleagues have strong feelings about the need for reform.”
According to Suarez, if he would have signed the legislation and took the pension, he would have been entitled to a benefit of more than $4 million, which he believed to be unfair.
“As I approach 16 years of public service, I never expected or sought such a benefit, and I do not believe it is fair for the hardworking, taxpaying residents of this city to bear it,” he wrote.
Suarez added that there also did not appear to be a “clear consensus” that the “pension as passed on October 15th should move forward in its present form.”
The full veto message can be read below: