Republican state Rep. Tom Creighton has taken his share of flak since telling me earlier this week that he would break his 2000 campaign pledge by accepting a taxpayer-subsidized pension after his retirement next year.

He's handled the criticism like so many politicians do — by first blaming the media for getting it all wrong, and then issuing a tortured denial.

Here's what Creighton wrote to one disappointed constituent, who provided a copy of the email at my request: "The paper distorted my response; as I will be taking deferred compensation which is a fund I personally contribute to from my pay; not taxpayer money."

First, a minor side note: Creighton's pay is taxpayer money. I'm sure it just slipped his mind that his $79,823.48 salary this year comes from you and me, not some mythical money tree growing outside the Capitol.

But that's beside the point. If he's been stashing part of his paycheck into a deferred compensation account, good for him.

The important thing to know is that Creighton is, in fact, enrolled in a separate taxpayer-subsidized pension program, according to records obtained through a Right-to-Know request with the Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System.

Those records also show, more surprisingly, that you and I have been paying into his retirement fund for quite a long time — since the moment he took office, actually.

Campaign pledge?

What campaign pledge?

This year alone the Rapho Township lawmaker's employer, we the people, are kicking into his pension fund about $9,587, an amount worth 12.01 percent of Creighton's salary.

Not bad, especially when you consider Creighton himself chipped in just 7.5 percent.

The other important thing to know is that the SERS pension, a generous defined-benefit plan, is optional for state lawmakers.

Let me repeat that.

It is optional.

Our legislators don't have to sign up. Those who eschew public pensions on principle can steer clear. They can say right from the get-go, "Thanks, but no thanks."

Creighton said no such thing upon taking office in 2001 — despite his campaign promise of less than a year earlier. SERS records show Creighton leapt at the chance to take a pension, enrolling in the taxpayer-subsidized system virtually upon taking the oath of office in January 2001.

He made his first payment to the pension fund on Feb. 1, 2001.

Creighton's contributions to his pension plus the 4 percent statutory interest come to $70,972.16, according to SERS records. It is unclear how much he's set aside in the privately managed deferred compensation fund, which is widely used by lawmakers to bolster their taxpayer-subsidized pensions.

Creighton did not reply to either email or phone messages in recent days.

So what can Creighton expect for his $70,972.16 and the tens of thousands of dollars we've contributed over the past decade?

Based on my calculations, an annual pension payment of about $28,387 beginning in 2013. It will take him less than three years to recoup the money he poured into his pension himself.

This will not be the first campaign promise Creighton has broken. Four years after taking office, he took out a car lease at taxpayer expense despite making a campaign pledge not to.

But Creighton still has a chance to redeem himself, to turn down his pension and walk away with just his own payroll contributions. He could still tell SERS to return those tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer pension subsidies to the treasury.

Who among us believes that will happen?

tmurse@lnpnews.com