Free Republic

In the wake of public finance debacles like Detroit and important studies of the depth of the problem, the public is becoming aware of the national crisis facing state and local pensions. As ALEC’s recent study, Keeping the Promise: State Solutions for Government Pension Reform, and a recent American Legislator blog post by Kati Siconolfi show, the problem is deep. Nationally, pensions are only 39 percent funded, amounting to a total underfunding figure of 4.1 trillion according to a recent State Budget Solutions Study. The state-by-state results are below:

Texas Republican John Cornyn supplemented his Senate salary with a trio of public pensions last year from his days as a Texas judge and elected official—a practice some fiscal watchdog groups have attacked as “double dipping.” Cornyn, who is the minority whip and the No. 2 ranking Republican in the Senate, reported collecting $65,383 in public retirement benefits in 2012 in addition to his $174,000 salary as a U.S. senator. Cornyn’s office did not respond to requests for comment. Elected to the Senate in 2002, Cornyn is a former district judge, Texas Supreme Court justice, and state attorney general. In...

It's difficult to divine exactly what the Occupy demonstrators in California cities and on university campuses are protesting. ... We needn't weep for the wealthy; they can take care of themselves. But their incomes are much more volatile than those of us who earn paychecks because they are much more dependent on capital gains from stocks and other investments, and when recession hits, their income streams decline sharply. That's where the effect on college fees comes into the equation. California has a particularly progressive personal income tax system, which means that it's extraordinarily dependent on high-income taxpayers. In fact, the...

Don Omodt made a good living as Hennepin County sheriff in the 1990s. He's making a better one as a retiree, with an annual government pension just under $150,000 a year, or $12,419 a month. So is Dale Ackmann, who left as Hennepin County administrator in 1992 and now collects $14,039 a month. Likewise, former state Transportation Commissioner Richard Braun gets $11,365 a month from the state and the University of Minnesota, where he taught. --------------------------Snip--------------- After 20 years as a state Supreme Court justice, Lawrence Yetka stepped down in 1993. He gets $10,001 a month, a pension he considers...

The nonpartisan Little Hoover Commission meets today to hear testimony about public pensions, aiming to dispassionately analyze the impact of retirement costs on governments and then, if needed, suggest changes. Heaven knows we need a dose of level-headed analysis, given the wide-open rhetoric that "pension reform" provokes. Unions see such efforts as a call to arms, "an attack on public employees," union lobbyist Dave Low once told The State Worker. Last year when it looked like an initiative might make the ballot to cut benefits for future government hires, Low warned it would provoke a "nuclear response" from labor. Context...

Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker said Thursday he wants state employees to foot the bill for their portion of their pension benefits and he would lead by example. Walker said he would pay for his portion if elected governor and he would propose in his first budget that all state employees and other elected officials do the same. Walker's share as governor would be about $5,600 a year. Any proposal affecting unionized state workers would need to be negotiated as part of labor contracts.

Calpers is considering whether to reduce the projected rate of return used by the giant pension fund to make investment decisions. A cut could force cash-strapped governments in California to pay millions more each year to cover their employee pension obligations. Since 2003, the California Public Employees' Retirement System has assumed that the value of its stocks, bonds and other holdings would increase by 7.75% a year. But the likelihood of an extended period of modest economic growth world-wide is fueling doubts inside Calpers that the pension fund can continue aiming so high. No specific alternate targets have been discussed...

California, with its complex mélange of cultural, demographic and economic forces, may be, some observers contend, just a concentrated microcosm of the United States, telling the rest of the nation what it can expect as the 21st century unwinds. If that's true, Los Angeles is a microcosm of California. That makes the city's budget crisis not only a reflection of the state's own chronic fiscal woes, but also a case study of the countervailing political forces. Los Angeles is contending with budget deficits of $600 million-plus over the next 18 months. But it has a liberal mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, and...

The debate about reforms to the Colorado Public Employees' Retirement Association (PERA) has reached a new level after the PERA board’s recommendations known as the 2/2/2 plus plan. The plan is another temporary solution to potential long-term problems. Because of PERA’s inherent conflict of interest, it cannot provide recommendations based on new principles. Rather than focusing on the details of PERA’s plan, broad principles must be articulated by the Legislature as guidance for long-term changes. These principles are vital to maintain a competent state work force providing a desired set of services at reasonable cost to the taxpayer.

The national economic collapse is battering municipal and state pension plans, and that means taxpayers will likely dig deeper into their pockets to pay retirees. "It's a ticking time bomb," said Trumbull Finance Director Lynn Heim. "Unless the market takes off, we will just be holding our head above water." Before the recession took hold, and before the stock market took a nose dive, towns and cities across the region were already allocating more money each year to pay retirees, who can earn as much as 70 percent of their pay. But experts say the 2008 stock market crash is...

Nearly three years ago, the two men, Stephen Caracappa and Louis J. Eppolito, were convicted of serving as assassins and spies for the Mafia while they were employed as detectives for the Police Department. “These two defendants have committed what amounts to treason against the people of the City of New York and their fellow police officers,” said Judge Jack B. Weinstein of United States District Court. He sentenced Mr. Eppolito to life plus 100 years, and fined him $4.75 million; Mr. Caracappa got life plus 80 years, and a fine of $4.25 million. The judge said both men were...

The Colorado Division of Human Resources (DHR) conducts an annual compensation survey to support a state policy that provides competitive total compensation to ensure a qualified and competent workforce. Because this survey is significantly flawed in its estimation of retirement compensation, the comparison between private and public sector compensation is distorted.