Posted on 04/24/2016 4:53:14 AM PDT by C19fan
Among the many complex issues in Puerto Rico’s dire financial situation—the Island owes a staggering $73 billion in debt—is how to treat the pension obligations owed to the more than 100,000 retirees and 125,000 active members in the Puerto Rico Government Employee’s Retirement System (PRGERS). Hedge fund managers who gambled on Puerto Rico, paying 30 and 40 cents on the dollar in hopes for full dollar value repayment plus interest, will say Puerto Rico should pay them first. Close more schools if you have to (Puerto Rico has already closed 100), layoff more public sector workers if need be (30,000 have already lost their jobs in this economic crisis), or throw seniors who depend on their pensions into poverty; the hedge funds really need their money back.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Childers is the executive director of the National Public Pension Coalition.
PR is just a trial run of what will happen when states like IL and CA finally hit the fiscal wall.
Puerto Rico is in the shape it’s in because of its reckless borrowing and spending. Now they want a bail-out, and they just might get it. And then the old saying will apply: Whatever you subsidize you will get more of.
Don’t forget NJ; those pensions are strangling the economy here (and employers, along with American taxpayers, are fleeing in response). This is no longer a discussion about what is coming down the road; it is here NOW.
Our government worker parasite caste wants to focus the discussion on their current salaries and benefits (which are already so far beyond what their private-sector “hosts” earn) as a distraction from the real economy-killer: huge retirement packages that consume so much of current revenues that nothing is left to provide current services.
How can these states attract business or wealth when a huge IOU (for people who retired decades ago) will be handed to newcomers immediately upon their arrival?
If there are no penalties for being foolish and irresponsible the liberal spendthrifts will just keep doing it over and over.
You want ‘em protected, YOU protect ‘em.
I don’t see how my personal funds should be stolen away by thug bureaucrats in order to cover other people’s financial incompetence.
CT is in the same boat as NJ and CA. Idiot people brainwashed into believing that public sector workers are more valuable than private sector t.
“Puerto Rico is in the shape it’s in because of its reckless borrowing and spending.”
Corruption.
There’s talk about “retired cops” in Florida relaxing on the links after cashing $185,000 pension checks.
They hype their overtime last two years, so they get higher pensions.
I seem to remember something about a corporation set up under government auspices and some seed money (I think). It’s call the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation.
What they are talking about is this ‘fund’ woefully under funded. I guess the ‘managers’ won’t be getting their bonuses is what it’s all about.
If anyone is interested, they can go ask Neil Bush about he S&L tankup years ago.
” Idiot people brainwashed into believing that public sector workers are more valuable than private sector”
This is pervasive in our culture. Nobody hears about a taxpayer building a business, employing people, and paying exorbitant taxes ever being referred to as a “hero”. Practically everyone who gets a government paycheck is praised for “service”, “helping people”, and being a “hero”.
It’s a madhouse. The poor SOB who doesn’t work for government and pays his taxes year after year has to figure out how to construct his own pension while paying for the pensions of government workers of all types. This is a sleeper issue....for the moment.
Let ‘em starve same as any other American who made bad choices or was unlucky.
Agree. Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico pay NO US Federal Income Taxes. Never have to my knowledge
At least that scam is getting a lot of exposure now (and being remedied for current cops); sadly, the only thing driving much of the pension reform is the clamor from current non-white residents about how much money these formerly-white areas owe to primarily white retirees (leaving nothing for them to fund schools or pay new cops).
An acquaintance recently retired as a cop at 46, after 25 years on the job (he joined before college requirements became the norm); this guy will probably be a drain as a retiree for longer then he even worked. This problem is literally destroying NJ; the disintegration into a Third World mess is irreversible, with Third Worlders being trafficked here to replace the fleeing American taxpayers and their employers (to avoid the spread of Gold Rush-type ghost towns). Those states with viable economies will be subsidizing these newcomers for everything.
Time to cut them free. No Statehood...no commonwealth.
Well, ya know, it’s just money. Just print some more. My checkbook is full of checks, no big deal.
You nailed it, dude.
“””Let ‘em starve same as any other American who made bad choices or was unlucky.”””
LIKE!
why are hedge funds different from me?
the government stole my GM bonds and my retirement funds
screw the hedge funds...... power to the government workers
power to the old retiree’s /s
DEFUND socialist collectives, foreign and domestic. DEPOPULATE socialists from the body politic.
Now about Illinois.
We went to PR in 1996 on a company meeting for four days. We stayed at the El Conquistador hotel, a luxurious hotel to say the least. After landing at the airport, the zippers on our luggage were pried open, and despite the padlocks on them, our belongings were rifled through.
On the way to the hotel, I noticed all of the houses were surrounded by a security fence, with bars on the Windows. After we arrived at the hotel, we were advised not to leave the grounds alone, to travel in groups.
None of this left me with a favorable impression of PR.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.