There are pensions and then their are pensions for state legislators

USA Today has an interview with Cardozo Law School Professor Edward A. Zelinsky (see here) regarding State pensions and the way they are calculated.  Mr. Zelinsky has done considerable work in this area and he finds many things "offensive" about the way pensions are managed.  One of these offensive items is that many states calculate the pensions for State Legislators (wait for it.....) differently than they do for everyone else in the pension plan (always, of course, in a way that increases the future pension benefit).  Below is a graph from the interview (click to enlarge) showing which indicates which states have "special" retirement laws (the darker green the state, the more special laws are in effect).  And, yes, Mississippi is one.  The full article (read it here) contains this sentence: Mississippi legislators get two pensions that on average add up to 165% of their salary.