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Syracuse, NY -- Six days after winning election to a record fifth term, Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh filed his retirement papers. He’s not really retiring. He’s taking advantage of a legal loophole that will allow him to collect an estimated $82,500 annual pension in addition to his $110,000 salary.

Walsh, 66, is offering no apologies for his double-dipping, which will give him a combined income of $192,500.

He said he’s just doing what the law allows him to do and what his two immediate predecessors, Patrick Corbett and John Dillon, plus other elected officials across the state, have done. "The system is what it is,” he said.

Besides, he said, the county will actually save $24,000 a year in contributions to the state retirement fund because those payments stop when he begins collecting his pension.

State law allows elected officials to “retire” from their posts, then continue to work those same jobs while collecting their public pensions. For those who started in their posts before July 26, 1995, and who are at least 65 years old, there is no limit to how much they can earn in salary and still collect their pensions.

Walsh has 44 years in the state retirement system, starting as an Onondaga County deputy sheriff in 1966. He left the department in 1980 for an eight-year stint as security director for the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry. He then served five years as a county legislator and was first elected sheriff in 1994.

Walsh, a Republican, will start collecting his pension — receiving about 75 percent of his salary — on Jan. 1, the day he starts his fifth term as sheriff. He said he plans to fulfill his entire four-year term and has not ruled out running for a sixth term.

He easily defeated two of his deputies, Joe Price and Toby Shelley, in the Nov. 3 election. He filed his retirement papers with the state Comptroller’s Office Nov. 9.

Price and Shelley said Walsh should have publicly disclosed his “retirement” plans before the election, so voters would have a chance to express their opinion. “I’m sure the voters would like to have known,” Price said.

“I think he should have been honest with the people,” Shelley said. “The reality is he answers to the people and the people deserve to know the truth.”

Walsh said he would have disclosed his plans — if anybody had asked. “If I had been asked the question, I would have given it an answer,” he said. “It was an un-asked question. It became an un-answered question.”

The legislative loophole has existed for years, despite calls from critics to change the law to prevent double-dipping by elected officials. But the very people who would have to change it — state legislators — regularly double-dip themselves. Just recently, 11 state lawmakers filed their retirement papers so they can collect state pensions in addition to their legislative salaries.

After that news broke last week, New Yorkers for Growth, a political action committee, said elected officials “should be ashamed of themselves for exploiting the system to benefit their own bottom line.”

Not all eligible lawmakers are double-dipping. Assemblyman Bill Magee, D-Nelson, said he learned a year or two ago that he was eligible to take the money. “But I didn’t,” said Magee, 71. “You should take your pension when you’re done working.”

Teri Weaver contributed to this report. Contact Rick Moriarty at rmoriarty@syracuse.com or 470-3148.