Anatomy of a pension spiking

[Littlelebowski]

And people wonder why CA is broke (http://www.contracostatimes.com/danielborenstein/ci_12265599).....

[montanadave]

Retire on 147% of your previous salary?

What's not to love?

****ing insane!

:suicide:

[Suwannee Tim]

I wonder what the California Bankruptcy Trustee will have to say about this.

[VooDoo6Actual]

no doubt ridiculous.

The amount of glutonous unsubstantiated waste will be the ruin of any fiscal stability or reconciliation w/o regulations and oversights.

Watch it unfold before our eyes.

[Belmont31R]

Theres simply no way municipalities can hire workers who are raking in those kind of salaries for life. You're talking about over a million dollars every 4 years. My city of ~50k only spends about 4-5 million a year including all the grants they get.



All this is going to get sorted out one way or another. Just as I expect to see nothing from social security people expecting a fat pension the rest of their lives might get a rude awakening one of these days, and sooner rather than later.


Civil service jobs are not supposed to be cash cows for life, and they are unsustainable in our economy. You simply cant tell the average working people to throw this type of spending on their backs while being expected to put food on the table, a roof over their head, send their kids to school, keep running and reliable vehicles, most employers now want employees to have cell phones and internet at home. Government is going to break the backs of the people, and then we wonder why so many people are in debt. There is just simply too many demands on people now. Now not only does the average gov employee make more than the population at large but there are more of them than ever, and we are expected to keep paying them until they die. So if someone starts a job like this at 20, retires after 30 years at 50, and lives to 80 they are basically getting paid for 60 years for 30 years worth of work, and at greatly inflated wages compared to the rest of us and what these same positions were getting paid 10-30 years ago.


And yes I realize not every public employee is getting paid this kind of money but the entire work for 30 years and get paid for 60 years idea no matter what it is had led us to financial ruin for many cities, counties, and states. You might only get paid 35k a year but there are legions of people getting paid tax dollars at exorbitant rates all around the country. Our economy is based on the entire US, and we are competing globally for market share. Your local area might be in a good spot but it still affects you in the long run.

[uwe1]

I wonder which politician received support from the Firefighters' Union in exchange for this gem of a pension policy.

[Suwannee Tim]

Part of the problem is that state, county and municipal employees can have tremendous influence over state, county and municipal elections. Having elected their people to office they now control both the labor and management side of the collective bargaining process with predictable results. Part of the solution is to outlaw public sector unions. Another part of the solution is to eliminate defined benefit pension plans in favor of defined contribution plans. This might be done retroactively by a bankruptcy trustee. "Let's see, you paid in $200,000, you have drawn out $2,000,000. Our net future obligation to you is $0.00." It is often unwise to get greedy.


......And yes I realize not every public employee is getting paid this kind of money.......

That is correct. I'm an employee of a municipal electric utility and while our pension is good, it is nothing like this. Our pension plan is financially sound and self supporting. Permitting someone to boost pension benefits by basing them on things like a car allowance and unused leave pay is insane. They are essentially paying this guy to take leave from his retirement. These abuses occur in liberal areas like California, New York and Ill-annoy-us. They do not occur in conservative areas. What does that tell us?

I'll bet you my case of 5.56 ammo to your box of 22s that the US taxpayer will be "asked" to bail out these pension plans.

[YVK]

Cali has nothing on Chicago...Not condoning, of course, but at least the firefighter dude has worked his job. I know of cases where people just filled for interim positions until candidacy was filled, and then retired on pensions calculated off interim position salaries...

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

The tax free part is what got me, on top of the car allowance.

Hope the muni goes bankrupt and they re-calculate his pension.

The spouse benefit is trully scary. How is that calculated. Get to 80 and marry some 18 year old honey that will be fixed for life???

Why do we say that the 'rich' are taking kids school money away when this ass clown is the real culprit. He literally is taking candy from a babies mouth.

[Caeser25]

Theres simply no way municipalities can hire workers who are raking in those kind of salaries for life. You're talking about over a million dollars every 4 years. My city of ~50k only spends about 4-5 million a year including all the grants they get.



All this is going to get sorted out one way or another. Just as I expect to see nothing from social security people expecting a fat pension the rest of their lives might get a rude awakening one of these days, and sooner rather than later.


Civil service jobs are not supposed to be cash cows for life, and they are unsustainable in our economy. You simply cant tell the average working people to throw this type of spending on their backs while being expected to put food on the table, a roof over their head, send their kids to school, keep running and reliable vehicles, most employers now want employees to have cell phones and internet at home. Government is going to break the backs of the people, and then we wonder why so many people are in debt. There is just simply too many demands on people now. Now not only does the average gov employee make more than the population at large but there are more of them than ever, and we are expected to keep paying them until they die. So if someone starts a job like this at 20, retires after 30 years at 50, and lives to 80 they are basically getting paid for 60 years for 30 years worth of work, and at greatly inflated wages compared to the rest of us and what these same positions were getting paid 10-30 years ago.


And yes I realize not every public employee is getting paid this kind of money but the entire work for 30 years and get paid for 60 years idea no matter what it is had led us to financial ruin for many cities, counties, and states. You might only get paid 35k a year but there are legions of people getting paid tax dollars at exorbitant rates all around the country. Our economy is based on the entire US, and we are competing globally for market share. Your local area might be in a good spot but it still affects you in the long run.

All the while we have to pay for alot more of our own benefits and retiirement etc. . And we're the ones "assaulting" "workers" :rolleyes: and middle class rights :suicide2: umm, not raising my taxes is not an assault on the middle class, it's the only thing that CAN save the middle class.

Not to get off on a tangent about "rights" but there was a commercial the other day that had Ford's CEO in it about some liberal bs nonsense of how many cars on the road there are today and how many there will be in the future and blah blah blah about green driving and drivers rights, I have no clue what the **** he was talking about but I'll try to find it. :confused:

[Irish]

Not to worry, his pension will increase with inflation. :suicide:

Kinda like this broad who they reported made $840k being a psych in the CA prison system. The story has changed slightly now but there are still plenty of taxpayer funded positions making over $500k a year. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-05/california-prison-psychiatrist-paid-838-706-data-shows-1-.html

[Irish]

Are you ****ing kidding me?!?!?


As a result, under state and federal laws, much of his pension payment is exempt from income tax. Moreover, under state rules, if his wife survives him, she will be entitled to 100 percent of his pension for the rest of her life.

[Suwannee Tim]

This is socialism ya'll and it's great! Great that is, until you run out of other people's money.

[armakraut]

Kind of a nice racket. They don't have to contribute to their own retirement, they don't contribute to Social Security, and everybody else foots the bill. States like Illinois are in short order projected to have 100% of the money fleeced from taxpayers going to pensions.

Democrats are panicking because they tanked the economy through regulation and corporate tax redistribution to such a degree that without printing money they can only pay for the Debt Service, Military, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid and VERY few other things. They're literally freaking out because it's all over for big government. No more money available for the largely fraudulent progressive legacy regulation schemes. No doubt that the smarter ones also know that if they increase taxes, it will make the situation even worse.

Austerity has arrived for the regulatory class.


He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

[Belmont31R]

Are you ****ing kidding me?!?!?




That means he could apply for welfare/social programs because its not considered income. There was a lottery winner who stayed on welfare because lottery winnings were not considered income when it comes to these programs.

[Nathan_Bell]

These guys get the headlines, but they are not the only way that government employees game their retirements to the detriment of us all.

The mother of a good friend of mine retired from the state. She had so much "rolled over" sick leave, vacation, and personal days that she quit going to work over a year before she actually retired. As she hadn't put her papers in for retirement, her department could not bring in a replacement for her so they had to put people on OT to cover her position.
This is SOP for most retiring employees in her department. So most of the time there is at least one or two positions that we are paying two people to do one person's job.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

As she hadn't put her papers in for retirement, her department could not bring in a replacement for her so they had to put people on OT to cover her position.
So most of the time there is at least one or two positions that we are paying two people to do one person's job.

Actually, if they are dipping into OT, it is two and half people equivilents for one job.

[a1fabweld]

This state is so ****ed up & right when you think that things have reached their peak on the WTF scale, you find something more ridiculous than the last. I can't wait to GTFO. 5 more years for me then adios freakshow.

[duece71]

The current polictical situation out there probably isn't helping very much with this problem either. Good luck CA.

[Nathan_Bell]

Actually, if they are dipping into OT, it is two and half people equivilents for one job.

Too true

[Spooky130]

These guys get the headlines, but they are not the only way that government employees game their retirements to the detriment of us all.

The mother of a good friend of mine retired from the state. She had so much "rolled over" sick leave, vacation, and personal days that she quit going to work over a year before she actually retired. As she hadn't put her papers in for retirement, her department could not bring in a replacement for her so they had to put people on OT to cover her position.
This is SOP for most retiring employees in her department. So most of the time there is at least one or two positions that we are paying two people to do one person's job.

Same goes for the military but you're limited to 90 days. Guys do their retirement ceremonies, start growing beards and even get new jobs but are still getting all their pay and benefits. It is called terminal leave... The alternative is to cash in all that accrued leave for your base pay.

[Redmanfms]

Same goes for the military but you're limited to 90 days. Guys do their retirement ceremonies, start growing beards and even get new jobs but are still getting all their pay and benefits. It is called terminal leave... The alternative is to cash in all that accrued leave for your base pay.

Similar concept, but not quite the same, because the folks filling out the roster aren't paid overtime.



And that actually brings me another point. Every time I have some pro-union stooge wax philosophical about how great unions are and how we "need" them to protect the middle class, and that yes, public-sector employees must also be unionized, I always say, "Yeah, I think the military should have a union." A unionized military would be an interesting thing, wouldn't it? Oh, you want me to work 14 hours a day/7 days a week for 2 months to get this boat ready to go to sea and be part of the nuclear deterrent, and then spend 80+ days at sea with no/limited communication with my family and no "time off?" Speak to my union rep about that. Oh, you want me to go on some nation-building operation in the armpit of nowhere populated by people who hate me and are going to shoot at me as thanks for my benevolence? I think we'll need to have a union vote on that initiative.....

Funny how the public sector union logic kind of doesn't ever apply to the military, even for the pro-union/lefty types.


If you work in the public sector providing essential services and don't like your compensation, **** you, quit. If you're a cop/firefighter/water worker and you strike because you didn't get your fanny kissed, **** you, go to prison.

[chadbag]

Effects:

For Rhode Island, the Pension Crisis Is Now - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/business/for-rhode-island-the-pension-crisis-is-now.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1


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Nurse Making $270K on California’s OT Binge- Bloomberg



http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-26/nurse-making-269-810-demonstrates-california-s-overtime-binge



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[Belmont31R]

One day of substitute teaching means pension worth millions in IL:




It’s practically a fantasy come to life: work a single day and get a golden parachute that will guarantee one’s retirement in comfort and luxury. Only in Illinois, it’s not just a fantasy, it’s a dream come true for two high-ranking union officials who worked a single day in a public school. Thanks to a loophole in the law that the state legislature inserted into a “reform” law, that one day as substitute teachers will cost Illinois taxpayers a few million dollars in pensions:


http://hotair.com/archives/2011/10/24/one-day-of-teaching-nets-il-union-lobbyists-100k-per-year-state-pensions/