by Dick Hall-Sizemore

So far, Gov.-elect Spanberger has designated four members of the General Assembly for her Cabinet or high level administrative position:

Del. Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax)—Secretary of Finance

Del. David Bulova (D-Fairfax)—Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources

Del. Candi Mundon King (D-Prince William)—Secretary of the Commonwealth

Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Arlington)—Senior Adviser to the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority

For each legislator, particularly Sickles, Bulova, and Ebbin, the appointments will result in a financial windfall for each of them in the future. That is because members of the General Assembly are members of the Virginia Retirement System. 

The two primary factors used to calculate the retirement benefits of VRS members are the number of years in which the retiree was a member of VRS and his/her average salary during his highest paid period. For any person who was a member before 2010, the salary used to calculate the benefit would be the average annual salary during his/her highest-paid 36 consecutive months. For those joining VRS after 2010, the qualifying salary is the average of the highest-paid 60 months. Sickles, Bulova, and Ebbin were all elected before 2010 and thus would qualify for the 36-month average.

If they stay in their positions for the entirety of Spanberger’s administration, Sickles and Ebbin would both have 26 years of creditable service and Bulova, 24. Mundon King would have nine.

The budget bill submitted by Gov. Youngkin lists the following salaries for the secretariats involved:

Secretary of Finance (Sickles)–$236,238

Secretary of the Commonwealth (Mundon King)–$230,895

Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources (Bulova)–$225,815

The salary for the Special Advisor to the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority (Ebbin) is not known.

In four years, Sickles, Bulova, and Ebbin will be at or near retirement age.  The combination of their high salaries and their over 20 years of creditable service will provide them a sizable monthly VRS check during their retirement. Because Mundon King will have significantly fewer creditable years of service and she was not elected until 2021, her monthly VRS check will be significantly smaller. Her date of birth is not publicly available, but it is assumed that she will have to wait a few years after the administration is over before she can begin to enjoy that benefit.

To be fair, this is not the first time that legislators have jumped from the General Assembly into administrative positions and thus qualified for enhanced VRS payments. Furthermore, legislators from both parties have done so. One of the latest was former Del. Jackson Miller, R-Prince William, a 16-year veteran of the General Assembly who was appointed by Gov. Youngkin to be the director of the Department of Criminal Justice Services.

My Soapbox

Sen. Ebbin’s appointment is outrageous from two perspectives. First, it will not be effective until Feb. 18, after bill and budget crossover. That means he will be in a position to influence and vote on bills and budget provisions that would affect the agency that he knows he will soon be affiliated with. Unless he recuses himself from those votes, that would be a blatant conflict of interest.

The other outrageous aspect is that, based on the website of the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority, there is currently no position of Special Advisor included in its leadership team. It would seem that this position is being created especially for Sen. Ebbin. Again, this is not unprecedented.