UPDATE: Prosecutor fired for false flag terror attack AGAINST COPS
Search salary of government employees of State of Tennessee
Search salary of local and state government employees in Tennessee 2007-2008
Huckeby, Randall D
Department: TN DEPT OF SAFETY AT DEALS GAP
Class Title: THP SERGEANT ON THE DRAGON
Current hourly rate: $28.89
FY 2007-08 salary: $60,084.00
Overtime dollars: $10,181.87
Total = $70,265.87
(not counting overtime for testilying in court, not counting private part-time employment for "security", nor double-dipping military deployment as MSGT while on police salary, nor benefits)
1,500 tickets per year, #1 Ticket Writer in Tennessee?
14,700% increase in THP tickets on the Dragon
"About 200 union sympathizers waved signs and cheered Wednesday as speakers denounced Republican-sponsored legislation that would curb collective bargaining and political activities of public employee associations and unions. Participants included members of the Tennessee Education Association, Professional Fire Fighters Association, Fraternal Order of Police."
-Knoxville News Sentinel, Union sympathizers decry legislation, February 24, 2011
COP.
2. to steal; filch. 3. to buy (narcotics). 4. cop out, a. to avoid one's responsibility, the fulfillment of a promise, etc.; renege; back out. 5. cop a plea, a. to plead guilty or confess in return for receiving a lighter sentence. b. to plead guilty to a lesser charge; plea-bargain.
-Random House Unabridged Dictionary
Tennessee bill to end collective bargaining projected to save up to $16 million
March 07, 2011
Tennessee teachers call it an attempt to silence their voices, but supporters of House Bill 130 say it's a way to help balance local budgets.
The controversial legislation would strip teachers of the option to collectively bargain for salaries, working conditions, and benefits. It would also allow school districts to reduce the percentage of money they pay for teachers' health insurance premiums.
If every district made the maximum reduction, the bill’s fiscal note projects local governments would save a combined $16 million or about $600 per teacher.
“We all love teachers, we need our teachers, and we need to support our teachers, but we need to get rid of collective bargaining,” Northeast Tennessee/Kingsport Tea Party Organizer Britt Buehrig said.
Buehrig spent his weekend in Nashville rallying with other Tea Party members in support of the legislation.
“We’re supporting Pennsylvania, Wisconsin right now,” Buehrig said. “Tennessee also has a budget deficit. We need to meet it. We can meet it by curtailing some of the benefits that teachers are receiving. The counties and school districts can negotiate contracts that they can afford, because right now the state is going bankrupt."
Johnson City Schools Director of Finance Pam Cox crunched the collective bargaining numbers in her school district. She doesn’t see the savings.
“(Collective bargaining helps) us set our priorities if you will,” Cox said. “(It doesn’t) necessarily cost us any more money. I don’t know that we spend any more money because we bargain. I think how we spend our money may be a little different, but even saying that, I don’t think it’d be tremendously different if we didn’t bargain.”
Although the bill could save local governments millions, that’s only if every school board decided to crack down on teacher benefits. Cox doesn’t see that happening in Johnson City and in other parts of Northeast Tennessee.
“We have a goal to keep our teachers paid well,” Cox said. We have a goal to make sure that insurance is as good as possible and as inexpensive as possible. Unless school boards just come in and decide we're going to balance our budget on the backs of our employees, then I really don't see how it's going to save you money,” Cox said.
A House subcommittee is set to hold a hearing on the bill Wednesday. The full Senate is expected to vote on the legislation Thursday.
HOUSE BILL 130
By Maggart
AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 5-
23-107 and Title 49, relative to the Education
Professional Negotiations Act.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, Chapter 5, Part 6, is amended by
deleting the part in its entirety.
SECTION 2.
(a) On or after the effective date of this act, no local board of education shall
negotiate with a professional employees' organization or teachers' union concerning the
terms or conditions of professional service.
(b) Nothing in this act shall be construed to abridge or impair a contract or
agreement governing terms and conditions of professional service entered into by a
board of education and a recognized professional employees' organization under the
Education Professional Negotiations Act before the effective date of this act. Any such
contract or agreement shall remain in full force and effect until the expiration of the
contract or agreement. Upon the expiration of a contract or agreement negotiated by a
board of education and a professional employees' organization, teachers employed by
such board of education shall have the rights in their employment that are afforded to
them under state law and the personnel policy applicable to them.
SECTION 3. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 5-23-107(1), is amended by deleting
the language "or negotiated agreement pursuant to title 49, chapter 5, part 6".
SECTION 4. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-1-201(d)(2), is amended by
deleting the subdivision in its entirety.
SECTION 5. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-1-207(g), is amended by deleting
the subsection in its entirety.
SECTION 6. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-1-614(d)(2), is amended by
deleting the language ", and the Education Professional Negotiations Act, compiled in chapter 5,
part 6 of this title,".
SECTION 7. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-2-301(b)(1)(EE), is amended by
deleting the subdivision in its entirety and by substituting instead the following;
In the approved budget and consistent with existing state laws and board
policies, employ, transfer, suspend, nonrenew and dismiss all personnel, licensed or
otherwise, except as provided in § 49-2-203(a)(1) and in chapter 5, part 5 of this title.
SECTION 8. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-3-306(h), is amended by deleting
the language "and in compliance with § 49-5-611".
SECTION 9. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-5-5012, is amended by deleting
the section in its entirety.
SECTION 10. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-13-118, is amended by deleting
the section in its entirety.
SECTION 11. Because title 49, chapter 5, part 6, shall continue to be applicable to
contracts or agreements governing terms and conditions of professional service that were
negotiated and entered into by a board of education and a recognized professional employees'
organization before the effective date of this act, the code commission is requested to place the
Education Professional Negotiations Act together with an appropriate statement indicating its
applicability in an appendix to title 49 for the sole purpose of providing a readily available
reference for those affected by such contracts or agreements until the time that all contracts or
agreements negotiated under the act have expired.
SECTION 12. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare
requiring it.
Conservative chorus calling for states’ right to declare bankruptcy
Raw Story
A chorus of conservative pundits are calling for bankruptcy laws to be changed so that all 50 US state governments might have the chance to restructure their debts, an ability currently limited to corporations, municipal entities, and private citizens.
"Many states, including those with the country’s largest population centers, are now on a path to insolvency," Grover Norquist. anti-tax activist, wrote in a recent Politico editorial.
He continued, "This is primarily due to fiscally promiscuous lawmakers, skyrocketing Medicaid costs and unsustainable gold-plated government employee pension plans that most Americans could never dream of."
Like Norquist, David Skeel in the Weekly Standard marked the state of California at the top of the hit list due to its possible $25.4 billion deficit next year.
"Although bankruptcy would be an imperfect solution to out-of-control state deficits, it’s the best option we have, at least if we want to have any chance of avoiding massive federal bailouts of state governments," Skeel wrote in November.
Crooks and Liars' karoli noted, however, that California's "promiscuous" lawmaker - Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzennegger - has refused to use other tools at his disposal to raise state revenues.
"Arnie has now been governor of this state for half of (Democratic Gov. Gray) Davis' term and then one of his own," karoli wrote. "In that time, he has vetoed any effort to get oil companies to pay their fair share of taxes in this state, he has slashed programs to the bone, and the 'fat pensions' are ones beefed up by the likes of the Bell City Council, not ordinary employees."
karoli said that the conservative call to give states the power to declare bankruptcy is merely a new attempt to destroy public employee unions.
"In conservatives' worlds, the mismanagement of state finances should be on the backs of teachers, policemen, firefighters, and public employees," she wrote.
Public employee unions are historically allied with the Democratic Party; however, given the ease by which President Barack Obama froze pay for federal employees, the federal law banning state bankruptcies could be on the table.
"From the Republican perspective, the fiscal crisis on the state level provides a golden opportunity to defund a key Democratic interest group," James Pethokoukis, the Money & Politics columnist for Reuters Breakingviews, wrote earlier this month.
"For the GOP, it’s an economic and political win," he concluded.
Skeel, a bankruptcy expert at the University of Pennsylvania, said that bankruptcy could give states the tools with which to "play hardball" with not only unions but also bondholders.
"Ideally, bondholders would vote to approve a restructuring," he wrote. "But if they dug in their heels and resisted proposals to restructure their debt, a bankruptcy chapter for states should allow (as municipal bankruptcy already does) for a proposal to be 'crammed down' over their objections under certain circumstances."
Skeel continued, "This eliminates the hold-out problem — the refusal of a minority of bondholders to agree to the terms of a restructuring — that can foil efforts to restructure outside of bankruptcy."
Life's tough for $144,000 garbage collectors
New York benefits emblematic of national government crisis
Health care and pension benefits for state and local government employees are out of control, experts are telling WND, and a new study by a think tank points to New York City as being emblematic of the fiscal crisis.
Taxpayers in the Big Apple are forced to pay $144,000 a year for salary, health and pension benefits for garbage workers, who are unskilled but unionized laborers.
Research by the Manhattan Institute, a think tank in New York, shows that when Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office after 9/11 the city increased spending on garbage workers' salaries by three and a half times the rate of inflation every year, growing the sanitation department budget from $1.3 billion a year to $2.2 billion.
Get Rep. Devin Nunes' "Restoring the Republic" autographed – only in the WND Superstore.
The budget increased despite the reduction in force of the overall garbage collection staff by 4 percent; and the same kind of disturbing fiscal trend is slowly being disclosed by other cities and states, experts tell WND.
Dramatic cuts in overall compensation are required for states and municipalities to simply survive, they conclude.
"Reducing state and local government costs requires them to shift to retirement plans that are affordable, predictable and fair to both employees and to taxpayers," said David C. John, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a think tank in Washington, D.C. "Current employees will object, but officeholders have a responsibility to the taxpayers to stand up to that pressure."
Other experts agree but note that part of the problem is inept financial planning by the government, not just excessive spending.
State governments in the U.S. have an aggregate of pension liabilities exceeding $3 trillion. Politicians assumed an 8 percent return on the pension fund investments when they signed contracts with the public employee unions a decade ago.
Stocks – per the S&P 500 – are, however, negative for the last decade and many fixed income investments relied on by government pension funds are generating nowhere near 8 percent.
According to Robert Novy-Marx, a professor at the University of Rochester's Simon Graduate School of Business, states are either making up for the weak investment returns by contributing more money to the pension plans through increased taxes, or they are going to have to reconfigure the plans to cut benefits.
New York City isn't the only body politic in deep trouble, as California and Illinois are essentially insolvent, too, Novy-Marx's research shows.
According to the Manhattan Institute, the costs are soaring, but pensions aren't the only cost. Health care benefits for these unionized civil servants are extraordinary.
A decade ago, health care benefits for the department cost $150 million; they have since more than doubled to $313 million. Overall, taxpayers in New York City today spend $144,000 yearly for each garbage worker, up from $79,000 a decade ago. What's more, taxpayers spent about $10.5 million annually to fund sanitation workers' pensions. This year, it will cost $240 million – a more than 20-fold increase.
Contracts Clause
But trimming bloated budgets isn't as simple as it may seem, experts tell WND. The unions are going to insist they have a constitutional right to have their contract fulfilled.
"If local governments try and cut pensions that have vested, on the states' own initiative, without first going bankrupt, the public employee unions will claim that violates the Contract Clause of the Constitution," Hans Bader, a senior attorney at the libertarian think tank the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told WND.
The Contract Clause appears in the United States Constitution, Article I, section 10, clause 1, and states:
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
The Contract Clause, thus, prohibits states from enacting any law that retroactively impairs contract rights, such as defined benefit pensions and health care policies. The Contract Clause applies only to state legislation, not court decisions, however. So there is a solution in federal court.
"Local governments that are running out of money and are willing to go bankrupt could probably wipe out the pensions if they really wanted to," said Bader.
Alternatively, Bader said, the Republican House, which just overturned President Obama's health-care reform could impose a tax for excessive pensions and benefits on those local and state government workers, and refund the monies to their troubled states and municipalities.
"Liberals like excess profits taxes levied on oil companies," Bader told WND. "Why not take a page out of their playbook and impose an excess profits tax on public employees?"
Jerome Corsi's Red Alert earlier reported such unfunded liabilities are forcing many states to hike property taxes.
For example, New Jersey has disclosed that the unfunded pension liability for state government employees grew from $45.8 billion to $53.9 billion in 2009, an increase of 18 percent.
WND previously reported three GOP members of Congress introduced the Public Employee Pension Transparency Act, which would require states to disclose publicly the true size of their unfunded pension liabilities and also would prohibit any future public pension bailouts by the federal government.
The lawmakers also say the unfunded state pension liabilities may exceed $3 trillion.
San Jose officials warn of massive police and fire layoffs
Sean Webby
San Jose Mercury News
02/19/2011
Sketching out a worst-case scenario of San Jose's budget meltdown, city officials warned this week that they could lay off as many as 349 police officers and 145 firefighters, slashing close to a quarter of the city's public safety employees.
The city is also looking at millions of dollars in other cuts, including shutting off neighborhood streetlights for much of the night and eliminating some gang-prevention programs.
There has never been a major layoff of police officers in the city's modern history. But last year San Jose laid off 49 firefighters, and this is the second year in a row the Police Department has faced layoffs.
The apocalyptic scenarios presented at preliminary budget sessions this week are based on the assumption that the city won't extract concessions from public employee unions. But it's now clear that even with concessions, the layoffs will be severe.
City officials say the looming $110 million deficit projection is very real and must be made up through a combination of layoffs, concessions, program cuts and pension reform.
"I think it is inevitable there will be significant cuts," said Tom Manheim, a spokesman for the city manager's office. "We don't know how large the numbers will be. And more importantly, we don't know where the City Council will make those cuts."
The final decisions on layoffs are expected to be made during council budget sessions in June.
Manheim said that even if all 11unions agree to 10 percent concessions in total compensation, which includes salary and benefits, the Police Department could still lose 237 positions, while firefighters could lose 82.
Citywide, nearly 600 positions are potentially on the chopping block, he said.
Cutting the Police Department down to about 900 sworn officers would bring the department to staffing levels the city hasn't seen since the mid-`80s, when San Jose's population was about 700,000, about 300,000 less than it is today.
"It's too early to see exactly what will be played out," police Chief Chris Moore said. "But just having the discussion of cutting 350 officers certainly caused us great concern."
Would fewer cops mean less public safety?
"Of course it would," said Sgt. Jim Unland, vice president of the police officers union. "At some point our elected officials have to say `No more.' A city's No. 1 priority is to provide public safety for its citizens. No reasonable person would try to make the argument that 900 cops is enough to do that for a city of 1 million people."
Unland said that the cuts would mean it would take police longer to react to emergency calls, a much smaller traffic unit, fewer detectives to solve violent crimes and fewer special units to find and catch violent criminals.
In refocusing its limited resources, police may also have to stop investigating property crimes such as car thefts and burglaries.
The San Jose Fire Department has 650 full-time employees, so a reduction of 82 firefighters would reduce its ranks to 568.
Last year, the department laid off 49 firefighters after the city couldn't secure sufficient concessions from the firefighters union to save those jobs.
The police union avoided layoffs, however, by making more concessions than the firefighters.
Jeff Welch, president of San Jose Firefighters Local 230, said in a statement Tuesday: "The negotiation process has just begun and we're committed to working with the city on a combination of salary concessions, significant pension reform and operational efficiencies that will protect service levels for the community and save taxpayer dollars."
Under a budget-balancing scenario presented Monday to the council, city officials also proposed turning off some neighborhood streetlights from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. In addition, library branch hours could be reduced from 4.5 days a week to three days a week, and two of 10 community center hubs could be closed. General fund dollars spent on the city's pavement maintenance program would be axed, and the park ranger program would be eliminated.
Mayor Chuck Reed and City Council members said Tuesday that concessions were needed to save vital jobs. And some elected officials noted that about half the deficit is due to skyrocketing employee pension costs.
"The reason we're asking for a 10 percent cut (from the public safety unions) is that we're trying to save the jobs of police and firefighters," Reed said. "The retirement costs alone for police and firefighters add up to $45 million next year. " ... The cuts we're asking for will not cover it, but they will cover part of it."
Councilman Pete Constant, a former San Jose police officer, said: "It's really important that all of our city's unions - especially police and firefighters - understand the impact of the concessions we're asking for. If they're unable to make the concessions, then we'll have to face cutting up to 350 police officers, and I don't know how we'll have the ability to protect our residents."
Riot For Kids: Fat Cat Wi$con$in Teacher$ AVERAGE More than $100 K per Year Up to $300,000 - Cops are next...
JPMorgan CEO says Hundreds of Municiplaities "Won't Make It"
In a speech before the United States Chamber of Commerce, JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon told the audience:
"I wouldn’t panic about what I’m about to say. You’re going to see some municipalities not make it. I don’t think it’s going to shatter America, I just think it’s a part of the credit cycle."
He went on to say that some municipalities will need to renegotiate their debt and it will be hundreds of them that may “not make it.”
Analyst Meredith Whitney has been essentially warning about the same thing but has been under attack for her comments from the muni bond industry and has faced extensive repeated attacks for her view in columns by FOX reporter Charlie Gasparino.
The State of California is listed on Dunn and Bradstreet as a corporation.
Cops get $200,000 salary, force cities to file bankruptcy - If Vallejo was to declare bankruptcy, it would be the first city in California history to do so. Orange County went through bankruptcy procedings in 1994. Gomes largely blames what she calls exorbitant salaries and benefits for Vallejo firefighters and police officers. Gomes said that last year, 98 firefighters made more than $100,000 and 10 made more than $200,000 including overtime. Every full-time Union City firefighter earned more than $100,000 last year and the Fire Department accounted for nearly half of all city employees earning six figures, according to city data. Citywide, former police Chief Randy Ulibarri made the most money in 2006 with $220,256, followed by City Manager Larry Cheeves with $212,730. Rounding out the top five were Battalion Chief Ronald Oatis, $196,040; Battalion Chief Michael Brown, $191,721; and police Capt. Greg Stewart, $189,747. The Argus requested Union City's salary figures for calendar year 2006 last month after the California Supreme Court ruled that governments must reveal what they pay employees. Of about 305 full-time city employees, 98 earned more than $100,000 last year, said Rich Digre, who oversees the city's budget. The Fire Department accounted for 42 six-figure earners, compared with 35 for the Police Department. For sworn Union City police officers who made at least $70,000 in base salary last year, the average salary was $105,250 and the average overtime earnings was $8,204. Their counterparts in Fremont averaged $124,226 in total salary and $12,760 in overtime. In Fremont, average pay for firefighters was $137,404, and average overtime pay was $29,242.
Indicted Philadelphia cop wants $65,000 pension - Castro, 47, a 25-year veteran of the force whose salary was $97,015, stands to collect about $65,000 a year
Cop, firefighter pension bill passes - A bill that would reduce pension benefits for future police officers and firefighters passed the Illinois House on Tuesday. "By the time all's said and done, no one's going to be real, real happy," said state Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro. Marion Mayor Bob Butler was one of those people. "The burden on municipalities, the way the legislation is set up now, is intolerable," Butler said. "Even with revisions, this is still going to be intolerable." The measure, designed to gradually begin reining in rising retiree costs for municipalities, was approved on a 95-18 vote. The push for changes to the retirement system for police and firefighters has been under way for several years. Mayors and other local officials want to reduce the benefits in order to cut the amount local taxpayers must contribute to finance the pensions. Officials representing police and fire unions want the new law to require cities to make adequate payments into the pension funds, which are financed by investment income and contributions from both cities and workers. The current legislation would: Boost the retirement age for police and firefighters from 50 to 55. Those who retire at age 50 would see a 30 percent reduction in their benefits. Make the maximum salary to calculate benefits $106,800. Pension benefits no longer would be calculated on the employee's final salary, but instead figured as an average of the final 8 years of service.
Police pensions too rich for taxpayers - New Haven can’t afford to pay officers more in retirement than while working.
The pension calculations for a New Haven police officer are enough to make a city taxpayer weep. An extreme example is the pension for a retiring assistant chief, Stephanie Redding, 48. Redding, who is paid $100,350 annually, will retire with a pension of $117,750. The high payout is required by a labor contract with various devices that make it possible for officers to retire with annual pensions that may exceed their base pay. For most officers, base pay, overtime and extra duty income are all factored into pension calculations. An officer such as Redding, who does not receive overtime, instead qualifies for a pension based on the pay of the next highest ranking officer — in her case, the chief of police, who earns $150,000 a year. Her pension, if calculated on her actual base pay, would have been $82,000.
Average retired firefighter, cop gets pension worth more than $1 million - The average Chicago fire fighter who retired last year with at least 20 years of experience will receive a pension worth more than $1.3 million — not counting health care.
And the typical police officer retiring with the same experience trails narrowly at "only" $1.2 million.
So says Chicago's Civic Committee, which in an e-mail Friday morning released results of what it says is a study based on government records it recently obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request. According to the business group, the fact that sworn personnel can retire at age 50 with full benefits after just 20 years on the job gives them rights to pensions that far exceed what someone in the private sector would get after a similar period. Of the 67 firefighters who retired last year after at least 20 years working — holding ranks from commissioner to firefighter and paramedic — almost all will be entitled to a pension of at least $5,000 a month, the group said.
Retired cops will collect pensions while working new jobs for town - Four retired police officers will collect pensions while working in new jobs for their New Jersey town. The pension payments and salaries give the men an income of more than they earned while in uniform. Philip DiNicola is collecting a $128,000 pension after retiring as deputy police chief in Woodbridge Township. He'll also earn about $80,000 a year as the township's top court administrator. Retired Capt. Robert Hubner will earn $75,000 tracking scofflaws on top of his $105,000 pension. Detective Joseph Nisky will collect an $88,000 pension along with an $82,000 salary as recreation director. Sgt. Victor Pussilo will receive about $50,000 in the evidence bureau on top of a $69,000 pension.
Should criminal cops lose their pensions? - "Can't you find out if anyone is going to do something about this?" Here's an excerpt of the answer that will appear in tomorrow's Daily News: One after another, stories about bad cops have fallen around the city like dominoes lately, each one more disturbing than the next. There has, however, been one common thread: many of those who have been fired from the force or arrested have had no fear of losing their pension. Some of accused face charges that range from murder to rape to soliciting sex from a minor. As it stands now, the city code doesn't call for a city employee - be it a cop, firefighter or trash collector - to lose his pension, even if he's convicted of one of those crimes. Count City Councilman Frank Rizzo among those who are wondering if the code needs to be changed. "I just began discussing this my staff today," Rizzo said earlier today. "It's something that we're going to look into after the [city] budget is finished," he said. "We'll probably have to hold hearings." Rizzo said he was bothered by a recent spate of stories about cops who have retired from the force a day before they were arrested. Many have interpreted the sudden retirements as last ditch attempts on the cops' behalf at saving their pension benefits. Officer Anthony Floyd, a 14-year veteran, retired on Tuesday, and was charged the following day with assaulting and harrassing a woman he was dating. Another longtime cop, Tyrone Wiggins, retired a day before he was arrested on rape charges in November. "We can't have cops retiring one day, then getting arrested the next," Rizzo said. Even cops fired for gross misconduct are not blocked from receiving a pension. Also this week, Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey fired Sgt. Robert Ralston after the 21-year veteran admitted that he shot himself last month and created a phony story about being shot by a black man with corn rows.
States face $2-trillion shortfall in funds to pay retiree benefits
Washington Post
April 26, 2011
The state funds that pay pension and health-care benefits to retired teachers, corrections officers and millions of other public workers faced a cumulative shortfall of at least $1.26 trillion at the end of fiscal 2009, according to a new report.
The study, to be released Tuesday by the Pew Center on the States, found that the pension and health-care funding gap increased by 26 percent over the previous year. Pew officials said the growing shortfall was driven by inadequate state contributions, an aging population and market losses that accompanied the recession.
Although investment markets have recovered substantially since the period covered by the report, its authors warn that states still face an increasing burden from retiree costs that are beginning to crowd out critical services.
“In many states, the bill for public-sector retirement benefits already threatens strained budgets and is competing for resources with other critical needs, including education, infrastructure and health care,” said Susan Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States.
The report, which is based on state financial reports, found that states faced a $660 billion pension funding gap. Meanwhile, retiree health-care liabilities — which most states handle on a pay-as-you-go basis — totaled $604 billion, the report said.
Even as they face increasing liabilities, the report said, many states are not making pension contributions in amounts recommended by their actuaries as they juggle retiree and other costs against a backdrop of weak revenue.
In making its calculations, Pew used the states’ assumptions for what their pension funds would earn in annual investment returns, typically 8 percent — a figure that states have mostly met in recent decades but that some analysts think is now overly optimistic.
If states calculated their investment returns the same way that private firms are required to for their pensions, their obligations would balloon to $1.8 trillion, the report said. If states pegged their returns to 30-year Treasury bonds, an even more conservative standard, the liability would be $2.4 trillion.
Concern about underfunded pensions has prompted at least 29 states to either reduce pension promises to new employees or require workers to contribute more toward their retirement benefits, according to a separate report by Pew.
Three states — South Dakota, Minnesota and Colorado — have moved to reduce cost-of-living increases for current retirees, but those moves are facing court challenges.
The cost of pension plans and the benefits earned by the approximately 17 million state and local government workers have come under heightened scrutiny in recent years, as private-sector pensions grow increasingly rare and governors struggle to contain costs and, in many instances, reduce taxes.
Government employee union leaders, meanwhile, say the problems plaguing public pension plans are largely overstated.
“While individual investors are still struggling to grow their retirement portfolios to sufficient levels, pension funds have shown remarkable resilience,” said Gerald W. McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “These funds are not only persevering but are well on their way to full recovery.”
McEntee added that retirees who were AFSCME members earn average pensions of approximately $19,000 per year, of which member contributions and investment returns cover 70 to 80 percent.
“They earn modest benefits after a career of service,” he said.
CAFR Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports - Gangsta Govt keeps 2 sets of books for govt "pensions", just like Mafia looting union pension funds
Top Secret Tennessee CAFR Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports - Media Mafiya only reports on the Budget Report of expenses, CAFR Report covers secret profits and assets for looting by Insider Trading
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