This morning, in an editorial titled "DROP is bad all over," the Inquirer editorial board praises our April 22 cover story, "The Billion Dollar Boondoggle: DROP is bleeding us dry," written by Ralph Cipriano looking into the controversial 11-year-old retirement program:

It is bad enough that a handful of elected city officials have abused the pension perk known as DROP. But now there is more compelling evidence of an even bigger drain the plan is having on Philadelphia's already wobbly pension system.

A lengthy story in the City Paper last week detailed a number of red flags regarding DROP, short for Deferred Retirement Option Plan.

The plan has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and provided little to nothing in return. The firm that helped the city establish DROP has run into legal trouble in other cities. Before trying to raise taxes, Mayor Nutter and City Council should end DROP for all employees.

Almost 9,000 city employees have either cashed out of DROP or are enrolled in it. The retirees have collected lump-sum payments averaging more than $100,000, according to the City Paper story, written by former Inquirer reporter Ralph Cipriano.

Read the full piece here.

PREVIOUSLY >>> Cipriano talks DROP on Fox29.

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Inky big-ups Cipriano’s DROP investigation