Leaving Hawaii for Locality Pay

Interesting tidbit from Pacific Business News on the Bush administration's proposal to provide federal employees in Alaska, Hawaii and other far-flung areas with locality pay (which counts toward retirement) instead of the cost-of-living allowances they get now (which aren't taxed, but which don't count toward retirement):

It is not unusual for federal employees in Hawaii who are nearing retirement to request transfers to the Mainland for the express purpose of replacing their COLA income with locality pay in time to affect the final calculation of their retirement pay. Some then move back.