Posted on 09/19/2011 12:35:24 PM PDT by flowerplough
Rhode Island is the nation’s smallest state, but its pension problem may well be the largest in the land. The state is on the hook for billions of dollars’ worth of pension benefits owed to police officers, firefighters, teachers, judges, and state workers. But the money’s not there.
Projected investment gains never happened. State actuarial projections failed to keep up with public workers retiring earlier and living longer. Estimates put Rhode Island’s unfunded liability for public workers’ pensions at $7 billion, slightly less than the entire state budget for one year.
State Treasurer Gina Raimondo, who took office in January, made the pension problem her top priority. Raimondo and Gov. Lincoln Chafee are working on a pension overhaul bill they hope to submit to state lawmakers soon. The General Assembly plans a special session next month aimed at revamping the retirement system.
Raimondo is looking at proposals to suspend annual cost-of-living increases for retired public workers and to create a hybrid pension system for active workers that would combine a limited pension with a 401k-style account. Employees would keep the pension benefits they’ve already earned.
Most members of the General Assembly’s small Republican minority favor more aggressive cuts to benefits.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.worldmag.com ...
Oooh, Linc Chaffee is on the case. Problem immediately solved. /sarc off
Gee, what’s the first thing that happens when a RI public servant retires? He/she moves away so they don’t have to pay RI taxes.
Perhaps they need to re-legalize prostitution in Rhode Island, this time taxing it to close the gap. But wait....would that be balancing the budge on the backs of the....?
Perhaps they need to re-legalize prostitution in Rhode Island, this time taxing it to close the gap. But wait....would that be “balancing the budge on the backs of the....”?
“Projected investment gains never happened. State actuarial projections failed to keep up with public workers retiring earlier and living longer.”
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
I would like to have seen these projections, and how proponents actually expected the math to work.
I rather suspect it was the unions and Govco workers basically saying, “Do as we say and no one gets hurt.”
Better sell those RI Muni bonds at the open tomorrow...
Before I escaped the corruptest little state in the union,
I dated a girl who worked for the state.
I once asked her “What’s orange and sleeps three?”
It went downhill from there.
Oh, and the answer is “A state truck”
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