Posted on 12/25/2009 9:57:19 AM PST by FromLori
U.S. state and local governments face more than $530 billion in unfunded public pension liabilities and most do not have funds set aside to pay for them, a government report showed on Wednesday.
U.S.
As of June, state governments were on the hook for around $405 billion and 39 of the country's largest local governments must come up with around $130 billion for their other post employment benefits, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said.
The report said unfunded state liabilities ranged from as low as $71 million in Arizona to $62 billion in California.
Local government liabilities ranged from $15 million for a county in Arizona to over $59 billion for New York City, the GAO said.
The economic meltdown hit all U.S. municipalities hard and many have had difficulty keeping up with their pension, or OPEB, obligations.
"State and local governments faced increasing fiscal pressures in 2008, in part because of recession-induced revenue shortfalls," the report said. But "unfunded OPEB liabilities on their own are large enough to represent a fiscal pressure for state and local governments," the GAO said.
It said that by 2050, the projected operating budget imbalance for state and local governments is 4.7 percent of gross domestic product. This is largely due to increases in health-related spending.
The congressional watchdog said that only around 35 percent of the 89 governments it reviewed reported having set aside at least some assets to cover their liabilities.
This means that "most state and local governments included in our review are paying for their OPEB liabilities for active and retired workers in a given year from their current revenues."
The most common actions that municipalities took to address the shortfall were changes to their contributions to the benefits, such as reductions to the amount of health insurance premiums paid
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
SImple Solutions for Complex Problems::
No person shall ever receive a TAXPAYER FUNDED BENEFIT in excess of what the Average Citizen receives from Social Security or Medicare. There Shall be no exceptions, exclusions or immunities for any person, for any reason, under any circumstances EVER.
problem solved
Now we know why congress in 2008 was holding hearing on nationalizing ALL public and private pension funds and making everyone collect SS.
The time to act is now before it is too late. That will be the new mantra of the congress.
U.S. state and local governments face more than $530 billion in unfunded public pension liabilities and most do not have funds set aside to pay for them, a government report showed on Wednesday.
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Brilliant. And we have a “government” that is working hard to destroy the goose that lays the golden eggs that pays for such things -— tell me. Who are the stupid ones here? Is the lust for absolute power and control so strong that it is worth destroying the world’s strongest economy (or last time I checked anyway)? I wonder if those pensioners have figured out what has been done to them yet???
Basically...you can go state by state and predict bankruptcy dates right. The last state? Arizona. California is finished within a decade...they won’t be able to keep up with their obligations.
Hence the reason for most government workers, excepting the military, voting Democrat in elections. Government workers, whether city, state, or Federal, are hogs in most cases feeding from the trough. I don’t know of many jobs that one can work for 20 years and retire with premium benefits. The retired policeman (killed two of his wives allegedly) made more in retirement pay after 20 years of service than I do. Plus he gets medical pay and many other perks at the expense of the taxpayer.
Let their pensions fail like ours; then fire them.
Benefits for public employees are a problem and are an excessive drain on tax revenues. I disagree with your fix though. The average American who is working, receives more than just SS or Medicare when they retire. While your solution will fix the benefit problem, other problems will be created. How good a military will we have should they receive no more than just SS/Medicare for their service to our country? Answer, not good and we will be forced to draft enough people to meet security needs. Extreme measures usually don't solve problems without creating other problems.
...and who are the unindicted co-conspirators in this statist mess?
Part of the problem with that formula is that the private sector competitor doing the exact same job (e.g. accountant) could receive a 401(k) as well as a defined benefit retirement program, plus Social Security and Medicare (upon reaching the appropriate age).
If you whack the government employee who you gonna' get to do the work? Guarantee you will get a bad accountant ~ and you will need to pay him more up front anyway to make up for the losses he incurs without the deferred income represented by the programs you don't let him participate in.
That ought to just about double accountant salaries in the government.
Another way is to cheat the accountant out of his retirement.
I prefer a third method ~ just let 'em steal all they can carry out and give them nothing.
California and New Jersey state salaries and pensions are so outrageous that it defies description.
Ahh the good ol' days when "we the public" were actually in charge of our governmental affairs.
Under true socialism, those folks should share their generous benefits with the rest of us, but instead, it’s OK for them and not OK for us serfs. Typical commies.
The thugocracy has taxpayers to foot the bill, and pay the bribes.
The Federal pension trust funds are just like those covering SS and Medicare. They are filled with IOUs. The money has been spent and replaced with non-market T-bills. Since 2008, we have been redeeming the T-bills in the HI trust fund (Medicare Part A) and they will be exhausted by 2017. And by 2014, 45% of all Medicare expenditures (Parts A, B, and D) will come from the General Fund.
There will be many people to do the work, no worse than the personnel they replace, and probably more honest. The sense of entilement that gov employes have makes them think ethics are for "the little people."
Thank God I’m a federal employee, not a state or local government worker. The federal government can always print more money to fund my pension; states and cities can’t do that. I think a lot of state and local government retiree are in danger of having their pensions cut in the future. Again, thank God I’m a federal employee! Merry Christmas everyone!
Hmm.
I suspect you haven't thought this through as far as you should.
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