“Pension payouts depend on the contributions of current workers, and as the labor force dwindles, so does the money available.”
For most states the governments failed to set aside money for pension funds. It isn’t that the money wasn’t there. The money was spent on other things. In most states the governments were aware that the problem was only getting worse, but they continued to spend money they should have set aside, secure in the knowledge that the system would not fail on their shift. Well, the end is here.
Florida’s system is secure because the law requires the system to be fully balanced at the end of each year. The legislature has done exactly that. It can, therefore be done. But let’s face it, for the most part politicians exist to funnel money to their cronies and through circuitous routes to their own back pockets. That’s were the various unions and former state workers should start looking for it.
Translation: the money was spent on more current wages for unionized public employees. The biggest cost item, if you trace it all out, is almost always labor cost. And most government labor is unionized. So most of the funds not set aside for pensions went to the same folks complaining about pension funding. Knowingly and intentionally.