The Boston Globe‘s Sean Murphy reports on former Big Dig administrator Michael Lewis, who was able to triple his annual pension to $73,000 as a result of being “fired” by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority — as opposed to voluntarily retiring, which was how the departure was annnounced last year. (Lewis now earns $130,000 as Rhode Island’s transporation secretary, but Murphy reports that he is already collecting his Massachusetts pension.) From the Globe story:

The pension increase for Lewis was the result of a state law intended to protect state employees from politically motivated dismissals. Employees with more than 20 years of service are eligible for enhanced pensions if they can prove they were not fired because of poor performance or malfeasance. In his case, the reason was that his job was eliminated.

CommonWealth‘s Michael Jonas reported on the questionable application of this law in 2002:

The review shows that at least four ex-state legislators, including former House majority leader Richard Voke, have been granted early pension payments, despite apparently not qualifying for them. In hundreds of other cases, the timing of the pension application raises questions about the validity of claims that the employee was terminated or their position was abolished.

…top state officials, including lawmakers voted out of office and ex-legislators fired from plum patronage jobs, have legitimately qualified for a benefit whose public policy purpose appears dubious at best. Among those tapping into the rich grab bag of retirement provisions is former governor Paul Cellucci, who is now collecting $42,573 a year while serving as US ambassador to Canada on a federal salary of at least $130,000 a year.

And in 2004 state Treasurer Tim Cahill told CommonWealth that he would work to reform what are known as “termination pensions.”