Posted on 06/28/2016 10:29:32 AM PDT by MichCapCon
Just 13 percent of the local governments whose retirement systems are administered by a statewide entity have set aside enough money to pay the pensions promised to their workers.
The Municipal Employees’ Retirement System (MERS) administers pension systems for 728 local cities, villages, townships, agencies and more. But only 97 of those systems have adequately funded their pension obligations, according to the operation’s most recent report that covers up to Dec. 31, 2014.
Local government employees covered by MERS are owed some $12 billion worth of retirement benefits — but their employers have not set aside enough to cover the full amount. Taxpayers in those communities on the hook for $3.5 billion worth of unfunded liabilities.
MERS administers benefits for just over 29,000 municipal retirees, who receive $53.4 million a month in pension payments. The broadly defined term “municipalities” include not just cities, villages, and townships but also district courts, senior centers, regional medical centers, district libraries, local fire departments and more.
Underfunding at some of its largest members is much worse than the average.
Battle Creek (66.6 percent funded), Holland (66.0 percent), Calhoun County (63.5 percent), Port Huron (62.7 percent), Midland (60.2 percent), East Lansing (58.1 percent) and Flint (48 percent) are some of the larger government employers that have not set aside enough to cover their pension promises.
"This is pretty typical of (government) pension systems, and sadly this is in better shape than a lot of pension systems," said Chris Douglas, the chair of the economics department at the University of Michigan-Flint. “MERS looks to be about 70 percent funded. Illinois' state pension system, on the other hand, is only 40 percent funded with $111 billion in unfunded pension liabilities."
Douglas said the Chicago pension system alone is $20 billion in the hole.
"Pensions are going to be a huge issue nationally," he said. "Unfunded pension liabilities are estimated to be as high as $4 trillion. In 2015, the Treasury Department collected $1.5 trillion in income taxes. Thus, to close the pension funding gap, you would have to divert all income taxes toward pensions for nearly three years straight. I don't know how we'll solve this problem."
People in government generally always take care of those in government. They have absolutely zero concern for Middle America.
I don’t recall receiving any payment from the government other than tax refunds or jury duty.
How many current senators would vote to eliminate one cabinet office? 20? If it came down to their vote being the deciding vote I would bet less than 10. They are the ones our country elects.
Wrong again, you're batting zero. You might not have noticed, but the evil corrupt in government have been undermining and compromising even our electoral process for decades. It's what happens when they import tens of millions into our country illegally. That wasn't enough for their agendas of bad intent. So they enacted reckless, dangerous chain immigration policies, which allowed them to import even more millions.
For instance, CA was the first state to oppose this country looting madness with prop 187 way back in 1997. A historic election and it won big league by Californians. It would have stopped tax paid benefits for millions of illegal aliens in CA.
After the victorious election, the fed gov working in concert with their state gov co-conspirators burned the peoples ballots and declared the CA election illegal.
Learn it.
Correction, Prop 187, circa 1994.
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