Free Republic

The Chicago Tribune printed a letter to the editor that perfectly describes the disconnect that state workers have between their pensions and the political process. These state workers stare wide-eyed in faux innocence pretending that they themselves, as individuals, are wholly innocent of the mess that is our state pensions are currently in. But the truth is, the financial ruins that our states are in ARE the fault of state workers. It is their fault directly and without question. Their protestations of innocence is a lie. Sadly, it is a lie they tell themselves and they believe it. Here is...

Bankruptcy, taxpayer bailouts appear inevitable. States and municipalities are in deep financial trouble. Pension performance has faltered. Over a trillion dollars worth of municipal pension fund assets have been erased in the recent market meltdown. The average public pension plan is 35% under-funded, and things are getting worse. A wave of municipal bankruptcies could well follow. To avoid such a fate, there are three possible responses cities and towns can take to the problem of under-funded pension plans. None of them are appealing. First, it's important to understand that "under-funded" basically means municipalities lack the money in the pot to...

The fiscal strain of deteriorating pension funding levels on local and state governments could contribute to downgrades in the next several years, especially among those governments that entered the recession with poor funding ratios or have little flexibility in their funding requirements, a new report from Moody’s Investors Service warns. In the near term, the impact of dwindling investment returns as a result of the market downturn is broad and adds yet another layer of fiscal stress on governments already faced with faltering tax revenues, heightened demand for social services, and pressure to scale back pension contributions to balance their...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Retirees have something else to look forward to besides playing golf -- much better sleep -- particularly if they have decent retirement benefits and retire relatively early. That's what Dr. Jussi Vahtera of the University of Turku in Finland and colleagues found in a study of 14,714 people who had retired from the French national gas and electric company. But because the workers in the study had excellent retirement benefits, including generous pensions, the findings don't apply to everyone, Vahtera noted in a prepared statement. "In countries and positions where there is no proper pension...

With all the fiscal problems created by Barack Obama, the public pension crisis cannot be laid at his doorstep. That's because public unions - police, firefighters, teachers, state and local workers, and transit employees - have been gouging cities and states for years, sweetening their pensions at taxpayer expense until a nightmare is now on the horizon; the inability of cities and states to pay for these diamond-studded pension plans. And that will eventually mean a taxpayer bailout to end all taxpayer bailouts. Forget rising federal taxes. The rate of increase that will be necessary to pay for these pensions...

DETROIT—General Motors Corp. will replace its traditional health care plan for salaried retirees younger than 65 with a consumer-driven health plan linked to health savings accounts effective Jan. 1, 2010.Under the new arrangement, posted on a GM retiree Web site, the annual deductible will be $2,500 for individual coverage and $5,000 for family coverage. The maximum annual out-of-pocket expense will be $3,500 for individuals and $7,000 for families. A GM spokesman was not available for comment. After deductibles are met, GM will pay 80% of the cost of medical services and prescription drugs delivered through in-network providers and 60% of...

As government at all levels struggles with declining tax revenue and increasing operating costs, the elephant in the room largely ignored is the monumental expense of public employee retirements. A recent study by a taxpayer organization points out the behemoth of a problem by noting the obvious: When government agencies increase employee pension costs, they tend to increase taxes to cover the added expense. A study of municipal retirement systems shows that pricey pensions not only drive up costs, but ultimately also drive up taxes. This link between pensions and tax increases became apparent in a study of 17 cities...

America's largest public-pension fund, Calpers, revealed that a former board member had reaped more than $50 million in fees for arranging investments that could saddle state taxpayers with hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. The disclosure deepens concerns that alleged conflicts of interest are undermining state retirement funds. The California Public Employees' Retirement System said it is launching a "special review" into payments by money managers

The Social Security Administration recently announced the average Social Security benefit for 2008: $13,500/yr. More recently I received via a Freedom of Information Act the names of all the retirees from Consolidated school District 211 in Palatine, Illinois. The average for those 13 retirees was $96,000/yr at an average age of 58 versus Social Security's age 63. Using the Champion News Teacher Salary Database I determined that none of the 13 had had a salary less than $103,500 over the period July 1, 2004 thru June 30, 2008. Using those 4 years to determine the estimated beginning pensions gave starting pensions from...

Steep Losses Pose Crisis for Pensions Two Bad Choices for Funds: Cut Benefits Or Take Greater Risks to Rebuild Assets By David Cho Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, October 11, 2009 The financial crisis has blown a hole in the rosy forecasts of pension funds that cover teachers, police officers and other government employees, casting into doubt as never before whether these public systems will be able to keep their promises to future generations of retirees. The upheaval on Wall Street has deluged public pension systems with losses that government officials and consultants increasingly say are insurmountable unless pension managers...

A pensioner from western Sweden may have received the smallest benefit payment ever paid out by the country’s social insurance agency (Försäkringskassan). Ängelholm resident Gunnel Johansson receives a whopping 50 öre (7 cents) every month in support payments for low-income seniors (äldreförsörjningsstöd), the Helsingborgs Dagblad (HD) newspaper reports. According to a description on the agency’s website, the payments are meant to guarantee the elderly “a reasonable standard of living even if you have a low pension or no pension at all”. The payment is so small that Försäkringskassan has taken the unusual step of paying Johansson every other month. She...

Once again, Barack Obama proves he is not fit to serve as commander-in-chief to our armed forces. In a continuing despicable act, Obama is refusing to honor WWII veterans who fought for our nation in its darkest hours.

WASHINGTON -- In a strongly worded message to Congress outlining its priorities for a military spending bill, the Obama administration today said it disapproved of including money for pensions for 26 elderly members of the World War II-era Alaska Territorial Guard. The Guardsmen are among those assigned to protect Alaska from the Japanese during World War II.

Retired Capistrano Unified School District Superintendent James A. Fleming could face jail if convicted on a felony indictment charging him with using school resources to track his political enemies. But that won't stop his public pensions from rolling in. Fleming collects $141,331 a year in California state teacher retirement funds, on top of the $64,068 pension he collects from working 27 years in Florida. Even if convicted on the 2007 charges, both his pensions will remain untouched. Fleming is one of 3,090 educators in the California State Teachers' Retirement System who make at least $100,000 a year in taxpayer-guaranteed public...

Beleaguered Students, Bankrupt Pensions by: Sarah Carlsruh, September 10, 2009 This week’s Bloggers Briefing, usually a conservative affair, addressed the interests of two typically liberal groups: college students and union workers. Campusreform.org is an up-and-coming website that combines the social networking of Facebook with the informative powers of Ratemyprofessors. In the midst of overwhelmingly liberal college campuses, this site is a haven for conservative students. It gives them the opportunity to meet ideologically like-minded students, plan conservative events, and even blow the whistle on overly liberal college professors. Students, alumni, friends, and community members are welcome to join their campus’...

When it comes to municipal pension plans, Pennsylvania is king. Pennsylvania has four times more pension funds than any other state, and more than one-fourth of all the municipal pension plans in the country, according to the Public Employee Retirement Commission, an agency that advises the Legislature on pension issues and oversees the soundness of local plans. The number of local plans is growing by about 30 a year. Most of the 3,100 retirement systems, for police, firefighters or nonuniformed workers, are small. That's costly for members and taxpayers. Of 2,462 that reported administrative expenses, the cost was $36 million,...

A coalition of large US state pension funds has backed the private equity industry’s opposition to new rules on takeovers of troubled lenders, saying the plan would have a “chilling effect” on attempts to revive the country’s banking system. The warning by funds from states including New York, New Jersey and Oregon, which manage billions of dollars on behalf of public workers and are big investors in private equity, will strengthen the buy-out industry’s lobbying against the proposed measures. Under the planned rules, unveiled by regulators last month, private equity groups that buy a troubled bank would have to maintain...

Congress may confiscate every state pension fund into the bankrupt social security system. Indications that this strategy is being discussed in Washington have come in to us from several sources over the last few days. Tonight, a correspondent who has just come home from a Tea Party Townhall Meeting in Salado, Texas with US Representative John Carter (R-Round Rock) issued the warning. She said, "Representative Carter informed the crowd that talk has been bandied about Congress to appropriate every state's pension plans into the bankrupt Social Security System." She is absolutely 100% sure that she understood him correctly. Dear readers,...

It isn’t just out of the goodness of their hearts that Big Labor is gearing up to spend millions to help President Obama to jam Obamacare down the throats of the American people. The unions stand to get a big payoff of $10 billion to supplement their failing pension plans. The President of the AFL-CIO recently announced that the union would jump into the healthcare fight to help out “working people.” John Sweeney also said that the healthcare fight is “the next big step in our march to turn around America.” But unions already have their own healthcare plans and...

We've mentioned it here and there in the past, but one of the under reported stories about unions today is that few of them have fully funded pension plans and worse, many are in dire trouble. The Wall Street Journal reminds us all of the mess that union pensions are in with a July 27 piece headlined, "Union Pensions in the Red ." The WSJ reports on the unusual actions of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of the most powerful unions in America, as it tries to fix its pension funds. Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

United Healthcare Workers East, SEIU1199, the largest union in the East for non-nursing healthcare workers, started a campaign to rescue its pension plan while simultaneously demanding no reduction in benefits.

Delphi’s plan for the United Automobile Workers offer[ed] a supplement to workers who retire before they are old enough to collect Social Security. So laying off workers in their 50s and early 60s imposes sudden additional costs on the pension fund. Spotting these trends, the federal pension guarantor began putting liens on Delphi’s offshore affiliates, which are not in bankruptcy. As recently as last September, the insurer was warning that it would fight in court to make the healthy parts of Delphi’s corporate family cover the pension costs. It was also counting on a promise made 10 years ago by...

Can we understand why the state of California and its cities are in deep financial trouble? Pete Nowicki just turned 51 and was eligible to retire. So he did. His pension was full pay (nice), plus he sold his unused vacation and holidays, raising his pension from a very healthy $186,000 to $240,000 - per year. Pete Nowicki had been making $186,000 shortly before he retired in January as chief for a fire department shared by the municipalities of Orinda and Moraga in Northern California. Three days before Mr. Nowicki announced he was hanging up his hat, department trustees agreed...

American Express, the global financial services company, has effectively cut the pay of its 6,000 UK staff by stopping payments to its stakeholder pension scheme. It is the largest company to take such action and pensions experts fear that the decision could trigger a series of copycat announcements. American Express had been paying between 3 per cent and 9 per cent of salary into its employees’ stakeholder pensions. Employees had been contributing a minimum of 1 per cent and a maximum of more than 6 per cent. RELATED LINKS RSA insures against higher pension costs Revealed: pay rise for BA...

Local governments in New York State face an unprecedented increase in pension costs that will force them to triple their contributions to the state pension system over the next six years, according to an analysis prepared by the comptroller’s office. By 2015, pension costs borne by local governments upstate, on Long Island and in New York City’s suburbs will exceed $8 billion a year, compared with $2.6 billion last year, under the analysis, which was circulated to legislative and county leaders and obtained by The New York Times this month. The analysis predicts that counties will have to contribute an...

I warned people about this over a year ago..... This morning I had seen a third "notice" that there are widespread "critical shortfalls" in Union Pension Funds. I put up a short video on the topic and am now getting emails telling me that this is more widespread than has been reported - additional funds have been sending these deficiency notices out. And in that article I called for general strikes organized by the unions of this nation - what's left of them anyway. In fact, here's the original call: Yes, I am potentially calling for the Longshoremen to strike...

For Oregonians, many employers owe more benefits than their retirement plans can pay You think your 401(k) is in bad shape? Your pension could be worse off. Provided you even have one. Thirty-four of 36 large publicly traded employers operating in Oregon owe more retirement benefits than their traditional pensions can pay, an analysis by The Oregonian found. http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/07/pensions_in_peril.html

If there was one moment that foreshadowed California's long, sad descent from multibillion-dollar surpluses to deficits as far as the eye can see, it was that day in 1999 when the Senate approved legislation to increase pensions for state workers and opened the door for even bigger retirement checks for local employees. The discussion on the floor of the Senate took less than one minute, and it was tragically myopic, focusing not on how the bill would affect employees generally or on what it would cost the taxpayers but on the goodies the measure would grant to the Legislature's own...

General Motors is using its huge pension fund in a way it never intended. It had planned — and put money aside — for a steady march of retirees over time. But instead, tens of thousands of blue-collar workers, most in their 40s and 50s, are all becoming eligible for retirement benefits now, as the company rapidly downsizes. And even as its pension fund faces this giant bulge in payouts, G.M. is not putting any new money in — the company is not required to make any contributions to the fund until 2013. The longer this goes on, the weaker...

“In every respect, this agreement is a win for everyone,” said United Federation of Teachers (UFT) president Randi Weingarten in an unexpected Monday announcement about the deal the teachers’ union had just reached with the Bloomberg administration on pension contributions for new teachers. Mayor Michael Bloomberg echoed the win/win rhetoric and welcomed the anticipated reduction in pension costs for the city’s treasury after this year. Amid all this celebration, however, nobody pointed out that the pension deal will probably wind up harming Gotham’s students, starting with their very first day at school.

Hundreds-of-thousands of multi-employer defined benefit union pensions are underfunded. The unions’ only hope is to force more and more companies to fund these massive failing pension plans. The companies will no longer be economically viable if they are forced by the government to fund these failing pension plans.

The state has denied pension benefits to two former Luzerne County judges who took kickbacks from a juvenile-detention provider and is seeking repayment of $4.3 million the judges' kids-for-cash scheme allegedly cost state taxpayers. Reversing its earlier position Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. are eligible to receive benefits until they are sentenced, the State Employees' Retirement System ruled the former judges' guilty pleas to fraud and conspiracy in February provided sufficient grounds to deny them benefits. In a letter to two state lawmakers who proposed bills to immediately rescind pension benefits when a judge or other state...

A lawsuit would limit the information on the website of a pension reform group, preventing the listing of names such as Bruce Malkenhorst, a city of Vernon retiree with a $499,675 annual pension. The suit filed by a retired Contra Costa Deputy Sheriff, Donna Irwin, would allow the disclosure of the amounts of individual public employee pensions. But the recipient could not be named.

Cannot post. Here is the link:http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&sid=aFJd7ViPkXQg

A number of reports are making their way into the press about how various teachers' unions are being hurt by the drop in the stock market. It is realistic to assume that the leaders and many, though not all, members of the teachers' unions are liberal Democrat Obama supporters. So, let us see how it is going for them. The Minnesota state teachers pension fund is hurt badly by the drop in stock prices - and they want a government bailout. I gather they aren't members of the Ayn Rand Institute. Some quotes from Twin Cities' own Star Tribune: Through their Education Minnesota...

Remember how President Obama blamed Chrysler's bankruptcy filing last month on "a small group of speculators" who turned down Treasury's $2 billion final offer for their $6.9 billion in debt? Well, it turns out that hedge funds and other short sellers weren't the only secured creditors who got a raw deal from Uncle Sam. Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock revealed this week that his state's police and teacher pension funds have lost millions of dollars in the Chrysler "restructuring." Indiana's State Police Fund and Major Moves Construction Fund, which finances roads and bridges, together lost more than $1 million. And the...

At the end of 2006, with U.S. equity markets and the U.S. economy both bloated to artificial highs – thanks to the Wall Street Ponzi-scheme, built atop the U.S. housing “bubble” - the United States already had a “pension crisis”.

The Employee Free Choice Act, which would take away employees’ free choice about whether to join a union, has brighter prospects now that Arlen Specter is in the mood to compromise. This is wretched news, of course, because secret ballots matter (I'll point out why in Sunday's Journal Sentinel) and because the bill also imposes binding arbitration on company-union negotiations. As George McGovern recently put it, this is lunacy. Diana Furchgott-Roth points out that Specter’s compromise might well be to give way on the secret ballot – unions would have to swallow not winning 100% of the time – but...

New York state's criminal probe of kickbacks paid by companies eager to manage its $122 billion state pension fund has exposed "a national network of actors" whose schemes are ongoing, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday. "This is all across the nation, and it's continuing today," the Democratic attorney general said on a conference call. The probe, which began two years ago, has fixed the spotlight on the use of placement agents hired by investment firms to open the doors of the New York State Common Retirement Fund. For more details, please see: [ID:nN15509853]. Cuomo said he is...

President Obama's auto fix-it man, Steven Rattner, is in the news as one of the Wall Street financiers hit up for big money as part of New York state's unfolding pension-kickback scandal. The White House says he's done nothing wrong, and there's no public evidence that he broke any laws. But Mr. Rattner's high profile is nonetheless useful in drawing attention to the real story here, which is the growing evidence of corruption by officials who use their power over public pension funds to shake down private companies. This is the same political class that has been blaming banks for...

Checkmate for Pensions? The FT reports that investment losses hit public sector pensions: The crisis facing pension plans for US state and municipal employees is deepening as investment losses deplete the resources of retirement funds for teachers, police officers, firefighters and other local government workers. The largest state and municipal pension plans lost 9 per cent of their value of more than $2,000bn in the first two months of this year, according to data from Northern Trust. That followed a loss of 30 per cent in 2008, equal to about $900bn. Smaller funds, which underperform the larger ones, lost more,...

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...

The Teacher Retirement System of Texas has sustained investment losses that were billions of dollars more than expected, according to a newly released valuation. On Friday, state lawmakers were soberly assessing the report, which showed that the pension's unfunded liabilities have more than tripled in six months, to $40.4 billion from $11.5 billion. That shortfall will eventually have to be made up, or in the long term the pension won't be able to meet its obligations to all its members.

Millionaire ex presidents get millions in perks Posted By: Mike Deeson 1 day ago Tampa, Florida - When Barack Obama was sworn in as the nation's 44th president last month, all the focus was on everything new in Washington. However the change of command is as much about out with the old, as it is in with the new. While George Bush held the title of President for 8 years, he is now a member of another unique club, the ex-presidents of the United States. The members of the ex-presidents club also happen to be millionaires. It is a club...

I've been having a running "commentary" with 2 gov't workers in the comments section of this article. Their self-centered, self-serving posts are thoroughly revolting. NO appreciation that the taxpayers are providing them and their cronies with overly-generous GOLDEN PARACHUTES at taxpayer expense. Would appreciate a few Freepers following the links and backing me up. I'm poster "jeannebee" starting at 8:40am on 2/16/09. The assinine government workers are "gubmtwrkr" and "KJ250". Go read it and see if they infuriate you as much as they did me.

We've heard about many people that have lost everything because of the "economic meltdown", but they've all been general citizen types, the rich, the middle and others .. but ...

Financial institutions in the United States probably need hundreds of billions of dollars in additional assistance, and one congressman wants to harness state and local pension funds to help them. Rather than rely more heavily on the Treasury, which has already put $350 billion in the nation’s banks, Representative Gary L. Ackerman sees an opportunity in the trillions of dollars in public pension funds. Most of the funds suffered giant losses last year in the market turmoil. But they do not need all of their assets immediately, because their time horizon for paying benefits is decades long. (snip) Since the...

Recession is great for us. after working 30 years in Education I am retired and getting the same net incomes as before retirement AND the pension indexed so that my net will always be as if I were on the job and ALL health/dental taken care of. No expenses, house paid off, cars bought with savings, no outstanding bills AND because of the economic fiasco PRICES ARE LOWER EVERYWHERE. I just love it.

Next Catastrophe Think Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were a politicized financial disaster? Just wait until pension funds implode. Funds worth trillions of dollars start to plummet in value. Political pressure to be “socially responsible” distorts the market decisions of government-related enterprises, leading to risky investments. Investors who once considered their retirements safely protectedwake up to a sinking feeling of uncertainty and gloom. Sound like the great mortgage-fueled financial crisis of 2008? Sure. But it also describes a calamity likely to hit as soon as 2009. State, local, and private pension plans covering millions of government employees and union workers...

Don't let anyone tell you the American dream has faded. the truth is the U.S. is still minting lots of millionaires. Glenn Goss is one of them. Goss retired four years ago, at 42, from a $90,000 job as a police commander in Delray Beach, Fla. He immediately began drawing a $65,000 annual pension that is guaranteed for life, is indexed to keep up with inflation and comes with full health benefits. Goss promptly took a new job as police chief in nearby Highland Beach. One big lure: the benefits. Given that the average man his age will live to...