Free Republic

Without pension reform, progressive income tax amendment guarantees tax hikes on Illinois’ middle class. ( Full title). The current progressive income tax proposal would fail to pay down the state's unfunded liability while damaging Illinois' economy. On May 20, Democrats in the Illinois House Revenue & Finance Committee approved Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s prized progressive tax constitutional amendment. While the Senate had previously passed a new income tax structure – already different from the governor’s original proposal – the House Committee also passed the amendment without putting in income tax rates. ... progressive tax proponents need to face that without pension...

Connecticut has the most underfunded pension system in the nation, amassing more than $127.7 billion in liabilities.. The study entitled Unaccountable and Unaffordable showed Connecticut’s pension system dropping below Illinois and Kentucky when its pension liabilities were calculated with a “risk-free” discount rate equal to the rate of a U.S. Treasury bond. Connecticut’s unfunded pension liability rose from $99.2 billion in ALEC’s 2016 study to $127.7 billion in 2017, leaving the pension system only 19 percent funded. The debt from the public pensions amounts to $35,721 per person in Connecticut, the second highest per capita debt in the nation behind...

Guv Brown is going to “loan” $6 billion from a previously unknown slush fund to keep CalPERS doors open. That is after he GIVES then $500 million, so they can keep sending out checks. This is an economic disaster for the people of California—and another reason to leave for a Free State beofre your family finances are destroyed. ... employees don’t share in the cost of Unfunded Liabilities. 100% of that cost falls on citizens, whose services get crowded out and taxes get raised to pay off the liabilities. Jerry Brown proposes to borrow from a citizen-funded restricted fund to...

Efforts to overhaul California's public pension system are getting a boost as taxpayers voice outrage over a former sheriff who asked a court for $75,000 more a year in retirement pay -- on top of his current annual pension of $276,000. The latest battle in Ventura County is being fueled by the case of former Sheriff Robert Brooks. He retired in 2011 with a salary of $227,000. Today, he collects $50,000 a year more than that, with guaranteed cost-of-living increases. But that wasn't enough. Now he's suing for $75,000 more, claiming it’s allowed under the law. But voters may have...

California's pension system is living in a fantasy world where investment returns average 12.5% annually and there's enough money for everyone.Unfortunately that's not going to happen. A big study from Stanford Professor Joe Nation along with California Common Sense analyzed the need for major cuts to CalPERS, CalSTRS and UCRP.The largest union, CalPERS, has a 82% chance of a budget shortfall in the next 16 years.More highlights via Eric Savitz at Forbes: The June funded ratio, which measures assets to liabilities. is only 74% for CalPERS even using a high-rate of return assumption for its investments. Assume a 6.2% return,...

LONDON - The British government said Wednesday it will consider raising the retirement age as high as 69 as recommended by a panel commissioned to avert a looming funding crisis in the state pension system as people live longer and have fewer children. The Pensions Commission, appointed by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2002, also said the state pension should be increased and proposed creating a National Pension Savings System in which every worker would be enrolled automatically. "There are significant problems in our pensions system. There is a major demographic challenge," said Lord Turner, head of the commission. Work...

In a scathing report delivered to City Hall after sundown yesterday, San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre concluded that there is "substantial evidence" Mayor Dick Murphy and the City Council committed civil violations of federal securities laws. Aguirre's report, widely anticipated at an anxious City Hall, said Murphy and the council, beginning in early 2002, concealed important facts about the city's ailing pension system from the public and from investors in more than $1 billion of city bonds. At a hastily called news conference early last night, Murphy, reading a written statement, called Aguirre's allegations "untrue, irresponsible and defamatory." Murphy...

“What do rap music impresario Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and former Vice-President Al Gore have in common?" BusinessWeek asks in its latest edition. The answer: Both are being funded by California’s state pension system – better known as CalPERS (the California Public Employees’ Retirement System). The business weekly reports that the California pension system is forking over as much as $760 million to Ronald W. Burkle, a billionaire liberal Democrat, to invest in causes and companies that “will benefit minorities, women and blue collar workers.” One of those “minorities” benefiting from the novel investment strategy is none other than rapper...