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Texas teacher pension shortfall is billions worse than expected
Star-Telegram.com ^ | Sat, Mar. 14, 2009 | YAMIL BERARD

Posted on 03/15/2009 7:29:50 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer

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To: Sequoyah101

Ouch, my MIL is really cheap on the medical but she’s 86 and healthy as a horse, she’s going on 21 years retired so she’s getting her fair share for sure.


41 posted on 03/15/2009 8:25:13 PM PDT by tiki (True Christians will not deliberately slander or misrepresent others or their beliefs)
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham

I believe that could be true for some teachers that paid into a pension rather than social security and taxpayers picked up almost all of the tab for their health insurance and our high property taxes pay for all of this and I will not be happy to be taxed to take care of their loss (Texas).

But don’t lump all government workers in this. My husband is a retired federal employee who paid 6 percent of his income into his retirement all those years and does not receive anywhere near 90% of his highest salary and pays for his health insurance like everyone else still working at about $200 a month. He paid a lot less for group health insurance working for AT&T.


42 posted on 03/15/2009 8:28:23 PM PDT by maranatha
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To: DirtyDawg

I’ve long known Calpers was in the hole, I’ve never seen a number, until now.

Doesn’t surprise me, though, I bet it is more than $49 billion.


43 posted on 03/15/2009 8:30:01 PM PDT by stylin_geek (Liberalism: comparable to a chicken with its head cut off, but with more spastic motions)
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To: Nervous Tick
The problem always is that they will base their future spending on what they expect to earn. Add anew tax source, and they will base their new ‘needs” on what they expect to gain from it. The promises were too generous.
44 posted on 03/15/2009 8:33:46 PM PDT by RobbyS (ECCE homo)
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To: maranatha

Many teachers could not choose to pay into social security. They HAD to join the teacher’s pension plan. In some cases. teachers were able to choose both, but they won’t be able to collect from both.


45 posted on 03/15/2009 8:36:31 PM PDT by RobbyS (ECCE homo)
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To: tubebender

No thanks. I’m staying right here unless we go south and take over Mexico.


46 posted on 03/15/2009 8:36:31 PM PDT by SouthTexas (Pending....)
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To: Frantzie

“Obama’s people are already saying that rationing healthcare for people over 50 is on the table.”

Can you provide a source for this allegation?


47 posted on 03/15/2009 8:42:19 PM PDT by verity ("Lord, what fools we mortals be!")
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham

And the biggest shoe of all . . . social security, the Ponzi to top all ponzi’s. Realistically, is there any way out except for the whole stinking country to take bankruptcy?


48 posted on 03/15/2009 8:42:32 PM PDT by Paraclete
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To: jim-x
If I remember correctly, here in Arizona we had a tax increase a few years ago because the Teacher’s Retirement fund was not doing as well as expected. When that happens, apparently the property owners have to make up the difference.

My question at the time was - so what, my 401K is not doing as well as expected either - who is going to make up that difference?


Good point!
49 posted on 03/15/2009 9:00:46 PM PDT by Girlene
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To: Vince Ferrer

I’m not sure why its my responsibility to make up the difference in all the unfunded state pension systems.


50 posted on 03/15/2009 9:06:32 PM PDT by o2bfree
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To: Vince Ferrer
Either states and municipalities can raise taxes on the remaining productive people during a depression, or we can cut the seniors loose.

What they'll do is start raising taxes..on the already over taxed private sector, many of whom have no pensions, have lost their investments, homes, jobs.... They're in a tail spin here. Already happening else where...

Watch their government unions become unglued when talk of job, salary, pension and benefit cuts become unavoidable.

51 posted on 03/15/2009 9:08:55 PM PDT by dragnet2
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To: Paraclete

I believe it was one of our greatest thinkers of all time who once said, “To err is human, to forgive, divine.

Too bad we’re dealing with mostly humans, not the divine.


52 posted on 03/15/2009 9:35:02 PM PDT by erkyl (The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, stay neutral)
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To: Vince Ferrer
Just wait until they peel the layers of CALPERS back..........

You ain't seen nothing yet!!

53 posted on 03/15/2009 9:36:44 PM PDT by Osage Orange (Our constitution protects aliens, drunks and U.S. Senators. -Will Rogers)
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To: Vince Ferrer
Many pension funds bought mortgage backed securities that are now worth pennies on the dollar.

I am not sure that many pension funds have bought large quantities of mortgage securities. Most pension funds have a requirement to have a balanced portfolio. MBSs were probably part of the fixed income part of the mortgage. A number of pensions have other investments often in social investing.

The emphasis on unfunded liabilities misses the real problem. The real problem is on the benefit side, not on the investment side. The benefits are simply outrageous in many plans. Public employees think they have a birthright to highly subsidized early retirement. The pension agencies and gullible state legislatures have granted public employees an impossible investment: no risk and high returns. The idea that pension agencies can invest in risky assets to guarantee average returns of 8%+ is ludicrous.

In almost every state, there is a looming showdown between public employees who will demand to be made whole from taxpayers reeling from a crippling recession. Taxpayers were never told that they would have to bear a crushing debt to pay for highly subsidized early retirement. While the average taxpayer struggles to retire even at age 65, public employees demand to retire in their mid 50s with 50% to 75% of their recent salaries, inflation protection, and subsidized health care.

If you oppose this abmoniation and suggest that public employees should work to normal retirement age, you will be viciously attacked. The courts and pension agencies will insist that public employees have a property right to highly subsidized early retirement. The judiciary is the biggest defender of these benefits as the justice system has even higher benefits than the normal public employee.

54 posted on 03/15/2009 9:42:43 PM PDT by businessprofessor
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To: Frantzie
"Obama’s people are already saying that rationing healthcare for people over 50 is on the table."

I believe you.

My 68yo Momma won't without a link to an MSM article or *.gov website.

Does such a thing exist?

55 posted on 03/15/2009 10:08:06 PM PDT by ExGeeEye (This is a picture, not an advertisement.)
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To: smokingfrog

“Guess they’ll just have to keep on working like the rest of us - or join 0bama’s brownshirts.”

Sorry, not a very workable solution for my 88 year old mom who taught school in Texas for 30 years and who totally relies on her $1300 per month retirement for living expenses related to assisted living.

Also, as a retired navy communications officer (in WW2) and thirty years service in the Reserve, she’s about to screwed out of Tricare as well....

Friggen makes BLOOD shoot out of my ears to watch what is happening to this country.


56 posted on 03/15/2009 11:12:09 PM PDT by Mister Muggles
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To: Mister Muggles
God bless your mother, Mr. Muggles and all the people like her. I'm sure she deserves every penny of the benefits she gets. Sometimes I forget to add my */sarc tag.

The teachers unions just tick me off. They are the ones always asking for more money for education and benefits for themselves while teaching all the liberal claptrap that 0bama is proposing to our children.

57 posted on 03/15/2009 11:25:13 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( Dear Mr. Obama - Please make it rain candy! P.S. I like jelly beans.)
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To: Vince Ferrer

Teachers pension system broke?
I seriously do not care for teachers any more than they did me when I was s student.


58 posted on 03/16/2009 2:01:03 AM PDT by Joe Boucher (An enemy of Islam)
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