Is the end of millionaire retirements coming?
The Senate committees put their finger on the issue this Tuesday. They discuss the ruling to eliminate those ‘golden pensions’ enjoyed, above all, by former senior officials of Pemex and the CFE. The presidential proposal is clear: put a limit.
The new rule would be brutally simple. No public servant could collect a pension greater than 50% of the president’s salary. Translated into pesos and cents: a maximum of 70 thousand pesos per month. Goodbye to checks with six or seven zeros.
“Modifying legally granted pensions can generate legal conflicts and questions about legal security”,
That warning did not come from just any jurist, but from Senator Luis Donaldo Colosio. He put his finger right where it hurts: retroactivity. Changing the rules of the game for those who have already retired under another law is swampy territory.
But therein lies the juicy incentive. The reform not only looks to the future, but would also apply to what has already been delivered. The official calculation speaks of a saving for the State of more than 5 billion pesos per year. A figure that makes any public treasury’s eyes shine.
All parliamentary groups say they support the measure. Sounds like a consensus, right? However, the same doubt sneaks between the lines: the legal battle that is coming. Some legislators insist on reviewing this thorny point of retroactivity.
It is the classic dilemma between social justice and legal security. Between recovering public money and respecting what was agreed. The Senate now has the scalpel in hand. We will see if it operates with precision or if the fear of legal disputes ends up dulling the blade.
