County Comptroller Could Get $1 Million Backdrop

Milwaukee County Comptroller Scott Manske. Photo by Milwaukee County.

Scott Manske is the only person who has ever served as Milwaukee County Comptroller. The position was created by state law in 2011, at the urging of then Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, who argued that the infamous county pension plans of 2000 and 2001, which has cost taxpayers some $1.3 billion, would never have been passed had their been an independently elected comptroller in office at the time.

Manske was certainly familiar with county finances, having worked as the county controller since 1992, an appointed position that was answerable to the county executive. When he announced his run for the new post of Comptroller in December 2011, Manske said “I’m not a politician, I’m an accountant,” and promised he would strive to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect the county from unwise spending.

Well, he has a chance to save county taxpayers some $400,000 in spending. All he has to do is retire.

Calculations by Urban Milwaukee show that Manske will collect a lump sum backdrop payment of about $700,000 if he retires at the end of his current term, in April 2024. If he runs and wins another four-year term, the backdrop lump sum payment would grow to about $1.1 million. In addition he would also collect a monthly pension totaling some $34,500 per year — under either scenario. And that may be a conservative estimate of his total payout.

The backdrop provision was passed as part of the 2000-2001 pension package and eventually repealed in stages from 2002-2007, as a result of the pubic furor over its high costs. But Manske is among a group of veteran employees, perhaps as few as 700, who are still eligible for this lucrative benefit.

An employee can, of course, waive the backdrop and take a standard pension. That would give Manske a very generous pension of about $66,500 per year for the rest of his life. But when asked, Manske told Urban Milwaukee, “I did not sign a waiver of the backdrop pension benefit.”

He added that “I have not announced any retirement date.”

He already faces an opponent, should he decide to run for reelection. County Supervisor Liz Sumner announced in June that she is running for the position, as Urban Milwaukee reported. When asked to comment on his estimated backdrop she said, “that’s a lot of money.”

Then she added: “I don’t know what to say. I think whatever he chooses to do for retirement purposes is his business.”

Manske, 66, declined to disclose his date of birth, so Urban Milwaukee’s estimate of his exact payout is an estimate. He was likely eligible to claim retirement by January 2012, when under the rule of 75 he had 20 years of employment and was 55 years old, but might have been eligible a few months earlier. Using the (most common) pension multiplier of 1.6% times 20 years would give him 32%, meaning he could get an annual pension of 32% of his final average salary of about $109,000 paid to him as controller back in 2009-2011. So his pension amount would be $34.880. or 2,906.66 per month.

Under the backdrop rules Manske could, as of April 2024, collect 12 years and three months of that monthly pension, compounded by 7.5% interest, the current assumed rate of growth for the pension fund used by the county. This would grow to about $700,000 over that period. Should he be reelected that would grow to $1.1 million after he served his four year term.

The county Retirement Plan Services office does not compute any backdrop for employees until they retire. It’s a complicated process, because so many different pension laws and reforms have been passed over a period of many decades. The county’s “Pension 101” document for employees estimates that there are are 2,304 different calculations of the pension that can be made.

A key question in Manske’s case is whether he would be eligible for a 2% multiplier, which some veteran employees have received, rather than the more common 1.6%. If so, that estimate of a $700,000 pension would be about 25% higher. On the other hand, the 7.5% assumed interest rate could be reduced to 6,8% if the county approves the sales tax plan whereby its pension system gradually gets absorbed by the State of Wisconsin, which could lower his payout. Given that Manske is a a CPA and perhaps more knowledgeable about county finances than anyone, one might think he has calculated his potential backdrop. Urban Milwaukee shared its estimate of $700,000 with him and emailed this in response: “I have no comment.”

As of August, 2021, the last time the backdrop payments were updated by Urban Milwaukee, the total cost to the county was $354 million, with the total estimated price tag predicted to hit $460 million before all workers eligible for the lump sum payment will retire.

As of that story the largest backdrop ever collected was $1.5 million, with 11 other county employees collecting at least $1 million. Seven others got more than $900,000, nine got $700,000 to $899,000, 25 got payments of $600,000-$699,999 and 89 employees got $400,000 to $599,999.

In short, Manske’s payout would be one of the most lucrative backdrops ever collected by the nearly 2,500 employees who’ve received it to date, ranking among the top 30 or so payouts. Rather ironic for an official whose job is to safeguard the fiscal health of the county.