How Angela Corey joined the millionaire’s club

The economy is tough for many on the First Coast. People work multiple jobs just to keep a roof over their heads. The specter of foreclosures is becoming a reality, again, in neighborhoods throughout Jacksonville and surrounding cities. Yet one public official in particular is beating the odds.

In the eight years since Angela Corey became state attorney, her net worth has increased by almost 250 percent, with the lion’s share of the increase in the last four years coming from $395,626.266 in the taxpayer-funded Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) program.

In 2008, as a candidate for state attorney, Corey reported a net worth of $329,677.

In 2012, she reported a net worth of $612,600, an increase of 85.81 percent over the previous period. That increase was driven in large part by an increase in household assets, from $100,000 to $312,192. In that period, as she moved from assistant state attorney to state attorney, her salary increased by $57,000 per year: from $93,000 to $150,000.

In ’16 she reported $1,150,768.17 as her net worth, an increase of 87.85 percent over four years, and 249 percent over eight.

The bulk of that increase over four years came from an increase in investments: from $100,347 in 2012 to $627,328 in 2016.

That investment income was driven, in large part, from a new line item for 2016: $395,626.66 in her DROP retirement fund.

The DROP plan is a deferred compensation plan, designed to help state employees “voluntarily save and invest a sum of money, helping to supplement [their] retirement income.”

“Deferred Compensation [is] a pre-tax investment plan” supplementing “benefits [expected] from the Florida Retirement System (FRS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA).”

There are advantages to the DROP plan beyond what appears to be a healthy return on investment that Corey’s portfolio enjoyed.

The pre-tax nature of the investment lowers the taxable income of plan participants.

“Investing the same amount of money before taxes are withheld actually increases your spendable income. The bottom line is that you can invest a higher amount of money into the Compensation Plan versus an after-tax program and still have the same amount of spendable income afterwards,” reads the FAQ.

Plan enrollees, in that same FAQ, are told that DROP “is an excellent way to help provide additional income at retirement, as well as realize a variety of tax advantages.”

The vast improvement in the financial situation of the state attorney since taking office illustrates the advantages of DROP pretty well, showing that in an economy that is increasingly “boom and bust” for those in private employment, there are advantages for public sector employees that private sector employees are not privy to.