Perks

When the Boston Red Sox offered Curt Schilling $8 million to pitch for them next season it might be assumed they did so with the expectation that he would stay in good enough shape to, you know, actually pitch. Apparently not. Because the Red Sox also included a "conditioning bonus" that could earn the right-hander an additional $2 million if he stays trim enough all summer. But even that didn't seal the deal.

Does your job guarantee you a pension for your retirement? Mine doesn't, and if you're like most private-sector workers, your pension plan is either crumbling around you or has been replaced with a 401(k) program, which may or may not receive a helping hand from your employer. Yet many if not most chief executives continue to enjoy lavish pension plans -- on top of their multimillion-dollar pay packages and sundry other perks. How can that be fair? The short answer, of course, is that it isn't.

When new compensation disclosure rules were first implemented last year, they shone a much brighter light on the perks bestowed upon chief executives, such as country club memberships, rides on the corporate jet, home security systems and rich pensions unavailable to the rank and file. An outcry ensued. After all, some shareholders asked, why does a company need to pay country club dues for someone who already makes $10 million a year? Ditto for car allowances and healthcare deductibles.

A seat on the City Council in Anaheim and other municipalities no longer means an unrestricted supply of free tickets and luxury-box seats for baseball games and concerts, after the state ethics agency acted Thursday to curb such perks. But the Fair Political Practices Commission decided not to put new regulations on campaign accounts operated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other state officials.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's aides say she just wants to get home to California now and then and would like to do it in a plane that can make it all the way without stopping to refuel. Critics say the San Francisco Democrat is abusing the perks of power by attempting to commandeer a fancy jumbo-size military jet with a "distinguished visitor compartment with sleep accommodations."

Companies may have been playing hide-and-seek with a lot of little perks -- things like joyrides on the company plane, chauffeurs and country club memberships -- that they gave their top dogs, according to a study released Thursday by the Corporate Library. But because of new disclosure rules demanded by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the game's over. The disclosed cost of executive benefits soared 130% from 2005 to 2006, the pro-investor research organization said.

When Zhang Rongde ponied up $12 million to build a steel plant in this dusty town in central China, local officials offered the out-of-town entrepreneur tax savings, cheaper electricity rates and the title of "honorary citizen." In the U.S., an honor such as that might come with a symbolic key to the city. In Qinyang, it came with a red booklet that was like a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Council members routinely violate city policy by letting their friends and relatives use the free tickets and parking spaces provided to them for Chargers games at Qualcomm Stadium, the grand jury reported Thursday. In its civil oversight function, the jury said council members are violating a city policy that restricts use of tickets for the city's skybox to officeholders or people who can benefit the city.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox on Thursday called on Congress to repeal legal protections for a long-running Wall Street practice in which money managers pay above-average trading commissions to brokerage firms in exchange for research and other perks. Regulators have called these transactions -- known on Wall Street as soft-dollar deals -- little more than kickbacks.

The University of California has been proving the Republicans' familiar point: that tax dollars too often are wasted and abused by government. Democrats aren't even arguing this one. They're equally angry at UC. "This is a bipartisan tick-off," says state Sen. Jack Scott (D-Altadena), chairman of the Senate Education Committee. "I think it's a mentality of elitism, unfortunately, in an insular world." UC -- and especially its president, Robert C.