How Much Do You Owe Government Workers?

RCM ^ | 05/09/2012 | Steve Malanga

[SeekAndFind]

Thanks to promises made over the years by the St. Paul school board, taxpayers in the Minnesota city owe teachers and other education workers some $409 million in retirement health benefits that the district hasn't funded. So the school system has taken advantage of a new state law that allows local governments to levy a special property tax to help finance these benefits. This year, the district anticipates collecting an additional $12.8 million from property owners thanks to this new, so-called "other post-employment benefits" levy, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

The St. Paul school district is one of the few government entities I've found so far that charges a specific new tax to help pay off the staggering cost of retiree benefits. Most places are still dealing with their growing liabilities out of precious general revenues. But more such dedicated taxes are likely on the way.

The tab that state and local governments have accumulated in unfunded retiree benefits now amounts to several trillion dollars. In the last few years much of the debate about these obligations has focused on whether they would generate a wave of local government bankruptcies, thanks to a controversial prediction by celebrity analyst Meredith Whitney.

But while some people have been waiting for a government insolvency tsunami, the cost of retiree benefits to annual budgets has been soaring, crowding out other spending and gobbling up increases in general tax collections. Slowly taxpayer groups and other fiscal watchdogs have started adding up how much citizens may owe their local government workforce and how much they may have to pay in additional taxes as a result. If you live in St. Paul, the exercise isn't theoretical anymore. That may be the case in lots of other places soon.

[The Working Man]

And the unintended consequences are... Those who can move away to a location where the levy is not present will. Thereby lowering the taxable base once again.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Those who can move away to a location where the levy is not present will. Thereby lowering the taxable base once again.

That’s why it is important to keep government decisions as LOCAL as possible. If you centralize government decision making, thereby making it all-encompassing, thereby affecting the largest number of citizens, it becomes VERY DIFFICULT to move.

I can move away easily from my community if I don’t like their fiscal policies and taxes, I can move away from my county, but it is DIFFICULT for me to move out of New York State, much less the USA.

[HereInTheHeartland]

Just figure out a way to not pay them the benefits. The taxpayers had no say in the matter.

[G Larry]

The MSM never explain to voters the cost of Public Employee Unions.

Douglas County CO, now has open negotiations with Teachers Unions and School Boards.
“they” don’t like that much.....

[hal ogen]

Nothng. The government “workers” owe the taxpayer. Most of them have been at the trough throughout their career. Especially the teachers who only “work” about eight to nine months per year.

[MrB]

“A kick in the crotch” comes to mind...

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Thanks to promises made over the years by the St. Paul school board, taxpayers in the Minnesota city owe teachers and other education workers some $409 million in retirement health benefits that the district hasn't funded.

This is a really compelling way to put it because it spells out exactly what happened.

The teacher's union steamrolled the St. Paul government into making them a contractual promise it did not have the wherewithal to uphold. So guess what, taxpayers, now the teacher's union is coming after you, directly.

And when you fuss and fret about your property tax going up, remember again who it was who voted the politicians into office who made this terrible deal with the teacher's union. Look in the mirror. All that happy liberal horsesh*t you voted for is now coming home to roost.

[silverleaf]

$13 million grabbed from “property owners”, only another $396 million to go

[count-your-change]

Detroit? East St. Louis? Like that?

[patton]

” DIFFICULT for me to move out of New York State”

I own a house and 200 acres in NY state - I don’t live there.

F your taxes.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: I own a house and 200 acres in NY state - I don’t live there.

F your taxes.

___________________

Don’t tell me you don’t pay property taxes on that 200 acres of property...

[patton]

I do, actually, pay taxes on it - a few thousand a year. It pisses me off.

“School Taxes” - like I would send my kids to school in NY. Riiight.

[listenhillary]

How about giving politicians, administrators and bureaucrats that approved these retirement plans the tab for what they have done? Seems fair.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”The St. Paul school district is one of the few government entities I've found so far that charges a specific new tax to help pay off the staggering cost of retiree benefits. Most places are still dealing with their growing liabilities out of precious general revenues. But more such dedicated taxes are likely on the way. “

Actually this is an more honest way of doing it. And then voters can decide if they want to pay that specific tax to fund those pensions on election day when they vote.

Typically both parties do their best to make sure that voters cant tell what exactly they are paying for, by mixing up spending on things they want and don't want and having all taxes to pay for it go to a general fund.

Look at how social security and Medicare were sold as specific tax funded independent programs, but both have evolved such that they are both funded out of general revenue which comes from the treasury issuing more debt, and both parties outright lie and say they are still fully self funded. They lie because voters almost demand that they do, "Please lie to me and tell me it's free"

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

Look at how social security and Medicare were sold as specific tax funded independent programs, but both have evolved such that they are both funded out of general revenue which comes from the treasury issuing more debt, and both parties outright lie and say they are still fully self funded. They lie because voters almost demand that they do, "Please lie to me and tell me it's free"

Reminds me of a guy at work who kept saying that all women have "Lie to me" tattooed on their foreheads. He was married, and was talking about more important things than answering "Do I look fat?" Politicians act as if it would be cruel NOT to lie to the voters.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”Reminds me of a guy at work who kept saying that all women have “Lie to me” tattooed on their foreheads. He was married, and was talking about more important things than answering “Do I look fat?” Politicians act as if it would be cruel NOT to lie to the voters.”

You can never tell a woman who you need for something that she gained weight (unless you have a suicide wish) much like you can never admit to a voting taxpayer that you spent his SS and medicare on someone or something else to get his votes so now it is gone, which is what happened.

My favorite is how women always claim they hate liars, yet they are all natural born liars, and most of them are attracted to those that lie to them the most.
Example : Clinton and Edwards were very popular with the women.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

You can never tell a woman who you need for something that she gained weight (unless you have a suicide wish) much like you can never admit to a voting taxpayer that you spent his SS and medicare on someone or something else to get his votes so now it is gone, which is what happened.

I think a better comparison to the "Do I look fat?" lie is Sharron Angle's statements that unemployed NV voters were lazy (probably true in some cases, but a dumb thing to say). Like a husband who fell into that trap, Angle should have seen the consequences.

Spending SS money on something else and lying about it is more like what my women-have-a-lie-to-me-tattoo-on-their-foreheads friend was actually lying about his own sins that he didn't want his wife to know about.