Assemblyman William L. Parment, a Democrat from Chautauqua County in western New York, was the fourth Assembly retiree last year: he now earns a $101,500 salary while drawing a roughly $66,000 annual pension.

“I didn’t retire from the job. I took the retirement benefit that was due under pension law,” said Mr. Parment, 67. “Sure, people would say this is not a good system and this shouldn’t be allowed.”

In fact, the gravy train has already been curbed, if not entirely stopped. In 1995, the Legislature changed the law so that lawmakers returning to the same jobs could not collect their pensions if they earned more than $30,000. But, the rules were changed only for future generations  in this case, lawmakers elected after 1995.

Other loopholes remain, including one for lawmakers who leave one local or state elected post for another. Such is the case with Senator George H. Winner Jr., a 59-year-old Elmira Republican, who retired from the Assembly after his 2004 election to the Senate. He now gets an $80,000 annual pension on top of his $89,000 salary, and also has a private law practice.

Mr. Winner said it would cost the state more if he truly retired because he would still be earning a pension and the state would also have to make pension contributions for his successor. “I’m actually saving the taxpayers money,” he said.

Despite Mr. Winner’s argument, finding a critic of the practice is not hard. As Kenneth Adams, the president and chief executive of the Business Council of New York State, put it, “Don’t you have to stop working to collect a pension?”

The retirements were revealed in data provided to The New York Times by the state comptroller’s office and come amid a series of state pension scandals.