Free Republic

Wear black on Friday, February 17, 2012 to illustrate your collective mourning over the attack that has been launched against Virgnia's teachers and students by legislators with the open disrespect and disdain as demonstrated by eliminating continuing contract status for ...new teachers, an effort to diminish our pension benefits, and general underfunding of our schools resulting in too large class sizes, under resourced schools and classrooms, and salaries that lag embarrassingly below the national average in spite of the fact that Virginia is the 7th wealthiest state in the nation.

Wisconsin Education Association Trust, a not-for-profit health insurance company created by the state's largest teachers union. The union trust is doing this in a bid to retain its dominant position as the state government's largest health care insurance provider. The funds in question derive from the much-maligned Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. Obamacare created ERRP as a taxpayer-funded subsidy intended to lower the cost of early retiree health care. Instead, the Obama administration has used ERRP funds to give political payback to preferred special interest groups. Top ERRP recipients include the United Auto Workers ($206.8 million), state governments and government unions...

Gov. Jerry Brown laid out a detailed plan to alter California's state and local public retirement systems on Thursday – and immediately drew fire from his core labor constituency. The details delivered to the Legislature on Thursday generally tracked with an outline he unveiled in October. Representatives of a union coalition hoped to negotiate what they consider a less severe package. On Thursday, they said they felt blindsided. "To launch this bomb in the early stages of the legislative season can only be counterproductive," said Steve Maviglio, spokesman for the union coalition Californians for Retirement Security. "The timing and severity...

The pension bubble: It’s a well-documented, potentially disastrous phenomenon. State pensions for public employees are underfunded by about $30 billion, give or take a billion. That’s money that was promised to workers upon their retirement and is guaranteed, regardless of stock/bond market performance. By law, investment shortfalls have to be made up by the state or some other government entity. The choices when that happens are slim and equally unappealing: cut services or hit the taxpayers harder. The bubble is about to burst, perhaps within a year, and that could result in huge — we’re talking really huge — tax...

The Treasury on Tuesday started dipping into federal pension funds in order to give the Obama administration more credit to pay government bills. "I will be unable to invest fully" the federal employees retirement system fund beginning Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a letter to Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress. The House of Representatives is expected to vote on Wednesday on the Obama administration's request to raise the country's legal debt limit to $16.394 trillion.

Thousands of Los Angeles County workers who collected a reported $48 million in unused vacation pay could dramatically impact both the county’s budget and pension funds, according to county officials. KNX 1070′s Vytas Safronikas reports the Board of Supervisors is outraged over a new report showing dozens of retirees receiving hefty compensation packages. The Los Angeles Times reported on one Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Marie Hannah who retired with a $143,000 annual pension and a one-time payment of $183,683 for unused time off. The package was reportedly for a combination of 325 days of vacation pay, sick time, comp...

A $409 million tab projected for retiree benefit costs looms for the cash-strapped St. Paul Public Schools. Some on the school board are urging the district to tackle the liability more aggressively. But officials say there's little they can do to put a dent in the costs, which have bumped up tax bills and diverted money from the classroom. St. Paul recently started socking away money to help cover the benefits, slated to sunset in 2014. But the investment came later and started out smaller than planned, and recent market turmoil chipped away at it. "I feel we're throwing a...

State workers and their families will pay more for medical care starting Jan. 1 under the latest changes to emerge from a state law that wiped out most public employee union rights. The changes in the state health plan require 183,000 participants to pay 10 percent of their bills for doctor visits, tests, surgeries and hospitalizations up to an annual maximum of $500 for single people and $1,000 for families. Health plan administrators have explained the new system previously, but they expect to get a lot more questions when workers begin reaching into their pockets. "I think the reality will...

The stock market's summer slide took a toll on public pension funds, with the assets of the 100 largest ones down 8.5% in the third quarter of 2011, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday. The quarterly decline was the first since early 2010, and the steepest since the fourth quarter of 2008, when the asset total plummeted 13.5% at the height of the global financial crisis. The latest drop brought the value of investments and cash held by the biggest pension funds -- including the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the California State Teachers' Retirement System and the Los Angeles City...

Dead Retiree Receives 7.7 Million Dollars in Government Pension Payment  California State Senate aide retired in 1969 at age 56 after 22 years of work with a "super escalator" pension from the state. Almost a decade after his death he is awarded $7.7 million in an additional pension payout.Watch the video... Uploaded by AFPCalifornia on Dec 16, 2011 California State Senate aide retired in 1969 at age 56 after 22 years of work with a "super escalator" pension from the state. Almost a decade after his death he is awarded $7.7 million in an additional pension payout.http://calpensions.com/2011/12/12/bid-to-trim-pension-fails-7-7-million-settl...Ventura County Taxpayer Associationhttp://www.vcta.org/California Common...

Phila. goes after pensioners who owe back taxesFriday, November 25, 2011 Associated Press Officials in Philadelphia say they will begin withholding pension benefits from municipal retirees who owe taxes to the city. **SNIP** Those who do not make voluntary repayment arrangements could have up to 25 percent of their benefits deducted from their pension checks.

WATCH: Heartbreaking Video Of Italian Minister Bursting Into Tears While Announcing Pension Reforms Joe Weisenthal Dec. 4, 2011, 5:05 PM We're not sure exactly what Welfare Minister Elsa Fornero saying, but obviously announcing reforms to pension systems is an emotional subject, as it means more pain for seniors on fixed incomes. (via Hugo Dixon). A commenter translates part of her statement: "I'm sorry. The people who work have no more money to give you. As a result, the pension age will go to 62 years old for woman, and 65 years old for man. No longer can we afford to...

Why work in America?

Christie attacks jurists' motives in pension caseBy Beth DeFalco Associated Press Posted: Fri, Nov. 11, 2011, 3:00 AM TRENTON - Gov. Christie questioned the motives of two state Supreme Court justices Thursday after the court agreed to fast-track a case involving a Superior Court judge's challenge to a new requirement that judges - like other state employees - pay more toward their health insurance and pensions. The suit maintains that the higher contributions in effect reduce judicial salaries and thus violate the state Constitution provision that the salaries of Supreme Court and Superior Court judges "shall not be diminished during...

In the elections last night, Ohio voters decisively turned back "Ohio Senate Bill 5", which would have limited the power of the public service unions, and forced union members to pay a significant part of their own health care insurance premiums. Granted it was not as much of a share as the Ohio taxpayer had to fork out for their own coverage, but compared to what the union members had been paying... it was an outrage. The issue was settled by State Issue 2, which was a referendum on the Senate bill. The unions can now celebrate a key win,...

Cost-benefit analysis may not be their strong suit but education majors may have figured out how to get the best return on their investment from college. “More than 50 years ago scholars were already noting the low grad­ing standards in university education departments,” Jason Richwine and Andrew G. Biggs wrote in a report published by the Heritage Center for Data Analysis. “The Journal of Higher Education reported in 1960 that 32 percent of students in education courses received ‘A’ grades, compared to just 16 percent in business courses.” “A half century later, the situation is little changed.” The report was...

The total of U.S. state debt, including pension liabilities, could surpass $4 trillion, with California owing the most and Vermont owing the least, a new analysis says. The nonprofit State Budget Solutions combined states' major debt and future liabilities, primarily for pensions and employee healthcare, unemployment insurance loans, outstanding bonds and projected fiscal 2011 budget gaps. It found that in total, states are in debt for $4.2 trillion. The group, which follows state fiscal conditions and advocates for limited spending and taxes, said the deficit calculations that states make "do not offer a full picture of the states' liabilities and...

The story is about growing scandal in the banking industry centered around banks allegedly overcharging pension funds for currency transactions. The man who uncovered the alleged scam, Harry Markopolos, expects all 50 states to eventually join the suit. If the name sounds familiar that's because Markopolos was a whistleblower on the Madoff Ponzi scheme, only to have his claims ignored by the SEC for the better par of a decade.

A labor leader in Chicago is expected to receive pension payments of nearly $500,000 a year, while another could get about $438,000 a year, according to reports Wednesday. The Chicago Tribune and WGN-TV, which obtained information about union pension benefits during a joint investigation, said at least eight union officials in Chicago were eligible for what were described as inflated city pensions on top of union pensions for the same period of employment. The news organizations said this was due to "a charitable interpretation" of Illinois law by officials representing two city pension funds. "Can you name any place in...

Russell and Patricia Caswell are a hard-working couple who may soon have their American Dream taken from them by the unholy alliance of local and federal law enforcement officials seeking to cash in on the Caswell’s property. The Caswells face this dilemma even though they have broken no law and have spent their entire professional career working to combat crime with the very police force that now seeks to take their property though civil forfeiture. What is happening to Russ and Pat, however, is by no means an isolated instance and local law enforcement’s end-run around state laws designed to...

It took six years, but Bloomfield Township officials say they have eliminated its legacy costs related to retiree pension and health care. The final step came when the township board recently approved six-year deals with three unions that ended retiree health care for new employees. “We’d love to be the poster children for the rest of the state,” said Treasurer Dan Devine. “We feel as if we are exhibiting all the best practices. We feel we got the whole package now.” In 2005, the township switched all new hires from a defined-benefit retirement plan to a 401(k)-type defined-contribution plan. Then,...

The retirement investment press is vibrating over new federal regulations that will seize sizable portions of 401k accounts and make it very difficult to own gold. While it took the cooperation of hundreds of congressmen to enact the new provisions – laws and regulations which modify the basic interpretation of the search and seizure provisions of the 4th Amendment and the tax codes that offer incentive to save for retirement – one particular California Congresswoman has come in for severe criticism. A Santa Barbara member of the New Democrat Coalition, Lois Capps, Dist. 23, is in her 8th term representing...

Most city workers spend decades in public service to build up modest pensions. But for former labor leader Dennis Gannon, the keys to securing a public pension were one day on the city payroll and some help from the Daley administration. And his city pension is more than modest. It's the highest of any retired union leader: $158,000. That's roughly five times greater than what the typical retired city worker receives. In fact, his pension is so high that it exceeds federal limits and required the city pension fund to file special paperwork with the Internal Revenue Service to give...

Reuters: Greece to cut pensions over 1,200 Euros per month by 20% Just a headline for now. Gotta be a lot of people collecting more than 1,200 Euros per month. My guess is that if the rioting hasn't started (again) it will shortly.

Jeffrey Miron economics professor at Harvard university and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute isn't so doubtful. He's out with a report of his own that states, "state government finances are not on a stable path; if spending patterns continue to follow those of recent decades, the ratio of state debt to output will increase without bound." Driving those costs he says are health care costs. "Things are bad for basically all the states for almost identical reasons," Miron says in the accompanying interview with The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task. In addition to the bad fundamentals, many states are,...

As Washington looks to squeeze savings from once-sacrosanct entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, another big social welfare system is growing as rapidly, but with far less scrutiny: the health and pension benefits of military retirees. Military pensions and health care for active and retired troops now cost the government about $100 billion a year, representing an expanding portion of both the Pentagon budget — about $700 billion a year, including war costs — and the national debt, which together finance the programs. Making even incremental reductions to military benefits is typically a doomed political venture, given the public’s broad...

Here’s the latest on who makes what from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (whose workers, we’ll point out here, happen to be public employees): Workers in the private sector made an average of $28.13 per hour in total compensation in June (wages contributed $19.81 to that, and benefits added $8.32)While state and local government workers made an average of $40.40 per hour (wages were $26.41, and benefits, $13.99). Of course, the amount one earns is a function of the skills and education one possesses. Our colleague Jan Norman tells you a bit more about the breakdown by job type here.It is often argued that many state and local government workers...

Maybe it's your brother-in-law, who has a new Mercedes and likes to quip that only fools pay all their taxes. Or else a contractor who overcharged for a home renovation and then demanded you make the check payable to "cash." The agency has two whistleblower programs... the reward can go as high as 30%.

The head of the U.S. Postal Service said in an interview that the organization will default -- perhaps as early as this winter -- unless Congress intervenes. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe's comments reflect a well-known reality that the Postal Service is in dire financial straits. The rise of email and online bill-paying has steadily eroded its profits over the years while labor costs soar. Donahoe is calling for a host of changes, including the elimination of Saturday delivery, to close a deficit projected to top $9 billion this year. But he said Congress needs to step in to help keep...

Mark Belling Conservative Radio Talk Host (Also Guest Host for Rush Limbaugh) on WISN Radio 1130 in Milwaukee exposes a Wisconsin union scam. Teachers retired and started collecting pension and health benefits have been rehired again as teachers for this year in same school district. This is double dipping and certainly is costing the taxpayers and also new teacher applicants that didn't get hired at a lower new teacher salary.

You wouldn't think that Erie County, Pa., epitomizes the least visible yet most insidious aspect of the nation's pension crisis. With just 280,566 residents, the county is better known for its once-grand status as being the hub between the Rust Belt metropolises of Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Buffalo, for the sandy Presque Island State Park, and for being the site of one of the few battles won by the Americans in the War of 1812. But these days, Erie County taxpayers are learning plenty about the high cost of pension and retiree healthcare deals struck over the past five decades by...

When Beverly Hills residents found out that many of their city’s 950 municipal and public safety employees were earning stunning salaries, 13 weeks of paid vacation, unlimited overtime and other tax-free retirement benefits, taxpayers were outraged and city officials rushed into closed-door sessions to figure out what to do. These revelations, exposed through the efforts of the city’s hometown newspaper, The Beverly Hills Courier, unmasked an even deeper problem: many California cities, and likely other municipalities across the U.S., are being strangled by the cost of ballooning pension benefits they can no longer afford. “What we have now is a...

The state auditor's office on Thursday added teacher pensions to the list of high-risk issues facing California government. The report by State Auditor Elaine Howle added the nation's largest teacher pension fund because it can't meet the costs of retirement benefits beyond the next 30 years. The pension funding problem was added to a list of risks that includes California's chronic budget deficit, unfunded retiree health costs and prison crowding. It's a well-known problem. The California State Teachers' Retirement System reported in March that it had 71 percent of the assets needed to cover retirement costs for its 852,000 members...

Chicago Union Leaders Grab Millions in Pension Loophole Updated: Tuesday, 23 Aug 2011, 6:42 AM CDT Published : Monday, 22 Aug 2011, 8:38 PM CDT By Dane Placko, FOX Chicago News Chicago - How would you like to get a 25 percent annual return on your retirement investment? It's a great deal, and it's not available to regular folks. But it is -- legally -- available to union officials who started their careers working for the City of Chicago. Take Tim Foley, who's the head of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 134. Under a little-known provision of the...

Providing for the defense of the United States is Congress’ constitutional obligation. Lawmakers should recognize defense is a necessity, if not the federal government’s most important responsibility. In recent years, however, defense spending has continued to decline as entitlement spending increased. Priorities are being misplaced as the gap between entitlement spending and defense spending continues to widen. This chart is part of Heritage’s 2011 Budget Chart Book, featuring infographics on federal spending, revenue, debt and deficits, and entitlement programs.

It sounds like a pretty good deal: Retire at age 38 after 20 years of work and get a monthly pension of half your salary for the rest of your life. All you have to do is join the military. As the nation tightens its budget belt, the century-old military retirement system has come under attack as unaffordable, unfair to some who serve and overly generous compared with civilian benefits. That very notion, laid out in a Pentagon-ordered study, sent a wave of fear and anger through the ranks of current and retired military members when it was reported in...

They want to cut military pensions. The Obama Administration’s panel of smart guys has decided military retirement has to go. Welfare can stay, free pills for Grama can stay, bogus SSI checks for life can stay, Food Stamps for soda and steak can stay, cushy federal civilian benefits stay, congressional compensation packages remain the same, but pensions for guys on their fourth tour, well, we can’t afford them. You now what this means? It means the military is a small and Republican-leaning voting bloc that the Democrats don’t care about alienating. It means that veterans have no political pull –...

Wall Street’s ride compounds states’ pension fearsBy MICHAEL GORMLEY Associated Press published Saturday, August 13th, 2011 ALBANY, N.Y. — Wall Street’s volatility has hit state pension funds just as they were beginning to recover from the recession, turning what was merely a troubled forecast into a potentially stormy future for taxpayers who are on the hook for billions in unfunded liabilities for government retirees. As for the millions of government clerks, engineers, janitors, teachers and firefighters in the retirement systems, they are protected by law or, as in New York, by the state constitution, to be backed up by tax...

Every day a flurry of 8.5'' by 11'' glossy mailers arrive in mailboxes across the 10th senate district in northwestern Wisconsin. They reliably depict Sheila Harsdorf, one of six Republican state senators facing a recall election on Tuesday, as a pawn of Governor Scott Walker and greedy corporations. Some days she's (falsely) accused of wanting to "eliminate Medicare." Other days she's attacked for cutting money from public education while sending millions to private schools in Milwaukee (by supporting vouchers that save the state money). But for all of the attack ads, there's one charge you'll never hear made against Harsdorf--that...

Report: Disgraced Still-Congressman Wu Can Draw Nearly $900,000 In Pension Benefits Zeke Miller Aug. 3, 2011, 4:13 PM Rep. David Wu (D-OR), the disgraced congressman who pledged to resign after reports surfaced that he had an "unwanted sexual encounter" with the daughter of a campaign donor. National Journal reports Wu could draw as much as $891,000 in pension benefits from the federal government. Wu was first elected in 1998. The report, which surfaced last month, was the latest in a string of scandals for the congressman, who was accused of erratic behavior by staffers during his 2010 reelection campaign. Wu...

The tiny, cash-strapped town of Central Falls, Rhode Island, is expected to know Monday whether it is officially bankrupt. Robert Flanders, the town's state appointed receiver, will work through the weekend to decide whether he will file for bankruptcy on behalf of Central Falls... ... Central Falls faces a $4.9 million budget shortfall. The real financial problem, however, is the city's $80 million public pension debt and it's public safety worker pension fund is on track to run out by October. A Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy filing would give Central Falls the opportunity to change it's union agreements. But it...

When I was a kid, it was a big deal when the postman came around. He was an important man carrying important documents from far away lands that we could only dream about… and each time he pulled up there was a brief glimmer of anxiety, wondering what unexpected surprise he might be delivering that day. At the time, I remember postage stamps for first class mail costing about 20 cents. If you’re a bit older than me, you might remember them being much cheaper than that. In fact, prior to President Nixon taking the US dollar off the gold...

Wounded by the CalPERS bribery scandal and other problems, a New Jersey pharmaceutical-benefits company is being sold. Medco Health Solutions Inc., one of the giants of the drug-benefit industry, on Thursday agreed to a $29.1 billion takeover by rival Express Scripts Inc. Such a deal would have been unthinkable a few months ago, when Medco was flying high. But the New Jersey company ran into a series of problems that began with its entanglement in the CalPERS bribery case. "This year has been a head-spinner for this (Medco) management team, starting out with the CalPERS issues," said investment analyst Arthur...

CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. — The retirees came from near and far, gathering in a muggy auditorium here to listen to an urgent pitch: give back a big chunk of your pension or risk losing it all. This city of 19,000 is broke and headed for bankruptcy, partly because it has promised retired police and firefighters millions of dollars in pensions and benefits that it cannot begin to afford. And so Robert G. Flanders Jr., a state-appointed receiver who is trying to right the city’s finances, found himself on the stage at Central Falls High School on Tuesday, asking retirees...

After years of declining tax revenues, cities and towns across the country are now running out of ways to deal with their ballooning budget deficits. ... Public employee costs account for a large share of municipal budget woes.

The year is 2020, just nine years from now, and the state is facing one of its worst budget crises in years. A new governor and legislature are grappling with the inescapable fact that before they can spend a penny on schools, roads or welfare, they have to pay a $760 million bill — almost all of it debt from the past. The bill has come from the Maine pension system. And if the state doesn’t pay every cent of it right on time, it will be in violation of the Maine constitution. The problem: the bill eats up 20...

Judges in Colorado and Minnesota have dismissed court challenges by retired public workers whose pensions had been cut — developments that may embolden other states and cities to use pension reductions as a tool to help balance their budgets. The two lawsuits sought to reverse reductions in the cost-of-living adjustments that Colorado and Minnesota had previously promised to retired public workers. Generally speaking, once lawmakers have agreed to provide certain pension benefits to public workers, it is difficult, if not impossible, to roll them back because of protective language in state laws and constitutions and years of court interpretations. Public...

Althouse: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports: Cost savings from worker contributions to health care and retirement, taking effect today as part of the new collective bargaining laws, will swing the Kaukauna School District from a $400,000 budget deficit to an estimated $1.5 million surplus….  The district… plans to hire teachers and reduce class size.Let’s stop and think of all the protesters who carried signs asserting that their opposition to Scott Walker was for the children. Preposterous! Surely she cannot mean that lower labor costs per worker might free up money to hire more!  What next, claims that increasing the minimum...

Firefighters union accused of intimidation tacticsUpdated: Jun 28, 2011 1:04 PM EDT Public employee unions in San Diego are accused of using intimidation tactics to slow down signature drives to put a pension reform measure on the ballot next year. The firefighters union has the most to lose if the voters approve pension reform because new hires will lose the lucrative benefits that current firefighters enjoy. They, and others, have taken their cause to the streets. The unions are tracking down the locations of the signature gatherers, and their job is to keep as many people from signing as possible....

Last week, the Florida Education Association joined with other groups to file a lawsuit challenging the Florida Legislature's mandate regarding the pay of 655,000 teachers, law-enforcement officers, firefighters and other workers who serve the citizens of our state. We didn't take this action lightly, but we believed we had no other choice. When the Legislature mandated that active members of the Florida Retirement System must give up 3 percent of their salary as "contributions" to their retirement benefits, it impaired a contractual agreement with employees in violation of the Florida Constitution. The Florida Retirement System is set up as a...