Before you can say anything about your mother not raising any idiots, know that, in order to take advantage of such a windfall, you have to have worked for the Utah Department of Public Safety or Department of Corrections for 20 years, or for some other state agencies for 30 years.

And you will have to have already fixed it so that you can retire, start drawing your state pension, and come back to work before anyone else gets your old job.

Legislative auditors make a convincing case that such a revolving door violates state law, inflates the cost of state pensions and damages morale among state workers by allowing a few clever and connected employees to game the system.

It is common and reasonable to reward long, low-pay, high-stress public service by allowing workers to retire young enough to embark on a second career. But the second career isn't supposed to be the same job all over again.

In a recent report, auditors counted 46 state employees who retired since 1999 and came back to work full-time for the same department within six months - sometimes the very next day. State law supposedly bans that. In 37 of the cases, it was the Department of Corrections.

Another 18, mostly at the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, came back immediately after the six-month cooling-off period, some having held their jobs on a part-time basis in the interim.

While they provided no figures, auditors argue that such behavior harms the state pension system. Early-retiring workers don't pay so much into the system during their working years, but draw more over the course of a longer retirement.

The argument that law enforcement agencies need incentives to keep experienced workers is worth considering. But so is the argument, not raised in the audit, that early, and real, retirement from high-stress jobs is wise public policy.

Existing policy is unclear and open to self-serving interpretation. That's not right.

If some agencies need to keep employees longer, make the case for better pay.

Otherwise, folks who retire should retire, and clear the way for new blood.