Under a program that began in 1991, Milwaukee County employees were allowed to “buyback” seasonal or part-time employment that otherwise would not have been eligible for pension benefits and convert it into pension-worthy time. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, around 350 workers paid a total of $2.5 million to buy back non-pension time, turning that small investment into at least $50 million in additional pension benefits due from the county.
One of those workers, former Milwaukee County Parks Director Susan Baldwin, paid $683 in 2000 to convert a brief seven-week stint as a county employee in the register of deeds office back in 1969.
