Gov. Rick Perry is taking advantage of a wrinkle in state law that allows a state officeholder to collect a pension while also collecting a paycheck. Considering the likely candidates, how could this figure into the 2014 elections? 

An old Republican rival of Gov. Rick Perry is calling on state and federal officials to investigate whether he broke the law when he began collecting his lucrative pension without actually leaving his job.

An appointee of Gov. Rick Perry is organizing a state-paid trip to New York to showcase the firefighter pension system and take Texas legislators on VIP sightseeing tours — inviting criticism about potentially wasteful spending at a time of budgetary strain.

As a Texas governor and presidential candidate, Rick Perry has repeatedly turned to the marketplace for policy solutions to health care and retirement security. But as a private citizen, Perry has generally relied on the government.

Gov. Scott Walker should come to Texas, where much of what he’s seeking already exists. The right to bargain collectively isn’t allowed among state employees, and no public employee in Texas may legally go on strike. 

The big-government crowd in Washington and elsewhere are bankrupting our country. And Republicans are just as culpable as Democrats in treating our taxpayer dollars as “other people’s money” to be spent as they and the special interests decide.

Though Texas employees are increasingly retiring just to get rehired — a clever way to bring in a salary AND a pension at once — USA Today reports that many states are curbing the practice.

No snowbirds here. A growing number of state employees are retiring and coming straight back to work, padding — and in some cases nearly doubling — their state salaries with pension pay-outs.