Thursday, January 13, 2011

Reason #321 why states are broke

Top 100 Illinois school district employees pension liability: Almost a billion dollars.

They're jacking up personal income taxes in Illinois by 66% to pay for this. I wonder if Jeff Smisek is having second thoughts about the move a few months ago?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

So long as our elected leaders can buy votes by paying groups who vote for them we will have this problem. There is just too much money going to governments and it is spent to buy power and enrich family. To stop it you have to starve the beast or elect honest leaders..both of which ain't going to happen.

NoVa Sideliner said...

like has been said many times, if you ran a private fund with the promises and performance of those pension funds, you'd be frog-marched in front of the TV cameras on your way to court. But somehow, government (and unions) get a pass when it comes to financial incompetence -- or even perhaps fraud.

Anonymous said...

A cardiologist who retired after 30 years working at UCLA will be lucky to see $50,000/year once the cities file bankruptcy.

Lou Minatti said...

I think it was Mish who proposed that since these contracts can't be nullified that any pension over $50k/year should be taxed at 90%. The pension promises are kept, the raping of taxpayers ends. Problem solved.

Not sure why anyone should be getting a public pension that keeps them in the lap of luxury during old age. This goes for both rank-and-file as well as the elected officials.

Anonymous said...

The problem with taxing the pensions of government employees is that my pension will get hammered too. If I retire from my present employer with 30 years in, I'll get a pension of $75k per year, assuming I don't get any more raises (let's hope that's a bad assumption).

What sort of pension do you think public employees should get? None?

Lou Minatti said...

I think if you have a private pension it's none of my business what you get in retirement. I think that if you receive a public pension it's wrong to retire early and wealthy, expecting taxpayers to foot the bill for 40+ years.

It doesn't matter what I think, really. The money isn't there to pay these pensions.

Dan from Madison said...

"It doesn't matter what I think, really. The money isn't there to pay these pensions."

Correct you are, hence the prices on credit default swaps for the State of Illinois (and California) trading at about the same level as Bulgaria.

Bill in NC said...

Those contracts can absolutely be nullified by a federal bankruptcy judge.

There needs to be some rationale - e.g. the judge can decide to pay based on years of service (and what the city can afford)

So a janitor with 30 years could easily see the same pension as that cardiologist.

NoVa Sideliner said...

All the state/city needs to to is Chapter 9 bankruptcy, right? Then (as with Chap 11 for corporations) all contracts are in the hands of the court and administrator.

Obviously, there's a lot of resistance to a Chapter 9 by vested interests, but it's there for a reason: The entity cannot pay!

Anonymous said...

I think there cities and counties can declare bankruptcy but not states...I seem to recall hearing that somewhere..but the DNC will insure the unions are paid first and the rest of society can just figure out how to pay for it.

Anonymous said...

On another blog, Lou wrote: "Casey make babby with new wife".

I hate to sound like a troll here, but does CHC have some inside info that the rest of the goon squad doesn't??

Or were you just wildly speculating...

Funny Circus Bears said...

My BIL just "retired" form the CCPOA (Ca Correctional Peace Officers Assoc.) with a lifetime pension of 90k / yr plus full medical. He returned to work the next day as a "retired annuatant" at full salary. He's 49 yo, never set foot in a college classroom, and there are thousands more just like him.