NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Hundreds of state employees are returning to work after they retire, and the program that allows them is being questioned.

Video: Some State Workers 'Double Dip' In State Program

Jaqui Depaola said she is retiring from her job as a tax collector.

"I enjoy it," she said.

Depaola said she has no plans to return to state government after she retires, but hundreds of state employees do under a program called "return to work."

In the program, if a retired person's boss asks them to come back to work, that person can go back and earn the same salary while collecting full retirement pay.

The Treasury Department runs the program.

"Often employers use it for special projects, for seasonal workloads, for knowledge transfer," said Department of Treasury representative Jill Bachus.

Some employees said it's a good way to keep experienced workers on the job, but others are asking if it's fair to let some employees "double dip" when thousands of others could lose their jobs.

"I don't have the least idea how the administration will address that program under these circumstances," said Tennessee Department of Transportation representative Cliff Stewart.

"I think it needs to be considered in the plan the governor has to cut the budget," said an Office of Finance and Administration representative who did not want to give her name.

Under the plan, employees work up to 120 days a year as long as they don't make more than 60 percent of what they used to make.

For example, someone who retired at $100,000 a year could earn no more than $60,000 while they're collecting retirement.

There are between 200 and 300 state workers in the program who are spread out in all salary ranges and all departments.

"It's clerks to high-level managers, depending on what the employer is needing at the time," Bachus said.

The 120-day a year limit has changed over the years. First it was 90 days and then 100 days.

State Sen. Doug Jackson introduced a bill that does away with any limit, a move that would cost an estimated $10 million a year.

Bachus said if the 120-day limit is dropped, it would also create a flood of retirements. She said a lot of state workers could retire, then get their old jobs back on a full-time basis.