Posted on 12/16/2014 8:23:06 AM PST by Kaslin
The city of Scranton hiked property taxes 57% and garbage collection fees 69% to shore up a police and fire pension funds that will run out of money anyway, in 5 years and 2.5 years respectively.
Amusingly (to outsiders) but certainly not to Scranton taxpayers, Scranton Pensions Increased as Much as 80 Percent as a result of inane mayoral promises.
The 2011 court ruling that awarded huge raises and millions of dollars in back pay to Scranton firefighters and police officers was a windfall for retirees too, with some seeing a more than 80 percent hike in their pensions between 2008 and 2012, a Times-Tribune investigation found.No Choice?!
The increase, most of which was paid in 2011, made the retirees among the highest paid in Pennsylvania, the newspaper’s review of the Public Employee Retirement Commission records revealed.
The increased pensions come at a time when Scranton, in distressed status since 1992, is struggling to survive. Faced with a $20 million deficit, council enacted a 2014 budget with massive tax increases — hikes of nearly 57 percent in property taxes and 69 percent in garbage fees. The recently passed 2015 budget hiked property taxes 19 percent.
The plans’ actuary, Randee Sekol, recently cited the raises as one of the key factors that have pushed the funds closer to insolvency. With a deficit of $78.8 million as of 2012, the fire fund is projected to run out of money within about 2½ years, while the police fund, with a deficit of $62 million, has less than five years left.
The city had no choice but to approve the pension hikes, issued under former Mayor Chris Doherty’s administration, because they are contractually obligated under the union contracts, said city solicitor Jason Shrive.
Last week, the city asked the fire and police pension boards to forgo that increase. Both boards rejected the request.Tell, Don't Ask
Mr. Shrive made the request based on a section of the Class 2A city code that states no increases can be granted to retirees if an actuary determines the fire and police funds are not actuarially sound. Scranton is the only Class 2A city in the state.
Mr. Shrive acknowledged that the union contracts obligate the city to pay the retirees’ raises, but he said he believes state law, which mandates the city follow the Class 2A code, takes precedent.
” The 2011 court ruling that awarded huge raises and millions of dollars in back pay to Scranton firefighters and police officers was a windfall for retirees too, with some seeing a more than 80 percent hike in their pensions between 2008 and 2012, a Times-Tribune investigation found.”
As UNIONS rule, cities go bankrupt.
Guaranteed.
Last time I looked, Scranton/Wilkes-barre is nothing but a Noo Yawk exurbia. Another Leftist enclave.
Let it go full Detroit. They deserve it.
Until the voters come to the realization the government employees at the federal, state, and local level are the largest and most effective lobby group in the nation, this overpayment of salary and benefits will only get worse.
Furthermore, the bankruptcy courts are siding with the employees and giving them full pensions and no salary reductions when a city does go bankrupt.
We need to clean government house and it starts at the local level by electing people who will cut the size of government, number of employees, salaries, and benefits.
Big government is bankrupting the taxpayer.
Let em eat bankrupt pensions.
Scranton has had a democrat mayor since 2000.
The mayor prior to that was a RINO who switched parties (from RINO to Democrat), so they haven’t had a Republican mayor for 25 years.
Score another one for Da Union!
I do feel bad for retirees. You are retired, and your life is based on your previous earnings. In your seventies, it’s not as if all people can rectify what government can do with a stroke of the pen.
The problem with government is that everything IS a stroke of the pen, and it drops on you like a brick. You spend your life preparing for a set outcome, and then somebody suddenly says, oh, you can’t do that, and boom, you are sunk.
I blame the taxpayers of PA who unhesitatingly, without deviation, for years and years and years still vote for every blue politician that comes along and rapes their pocketbooks. They elected this mayor, correct? Who promised them this? Even this year, when almost every state put the brakes on, PA still voted left.
Ain’t no party like a Scranton party cause a Scranton party don’t quit.
- Michael Scott
The politicians that made the pension increase deal were undoubtedly elected with union money so they were just doing what the unions elected them to do, taxpayers be da**ed.
“Better keep those hefty pensions in place or we’ll let a dozen Michael Browns push you around and then burn this b*tch down.”
Yes, we have no bananas,
We have no bananas today
Yes, we have no bananas,
Bananas in Scranton, P A
it’s them banananananana...nas
(I know how to spell it, i just don’t know when to stop)
They’ve never recovered from the banana accident.
Scranton PA - Birthplace of Hugh E. Rodham and Joe Biden.
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