The Wisconsin Lie Exposed – Taxpayers Actually Contribute Nothing To Public Employee Pensions

[Anonymous]

http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/02/25/the-wisconsin-lie-exposed-taxpayers-actually-contribute-nothing-to-public-employee-pensions


Governor Walker insists he wants state workers to "contribute more" to their pensions. He is making it sound as though state workers have cushy retirement benefits, paid for by taxpayers. But this article shows that state workers fund their retirement out of their own salaries.

[Anonymous]

Wrong

[Anonymous]

they decided to read their own contract wow

how much does this union pay in legal fees to illiterate lawyers if your assertions are correct

[Anonymous]

More pithy yet eloquent wisdom from the pass the weed dude.

[Anonymous]

and your point is?

[Anonymous]

Pass the weed cough, cough look black helicopters

[Anonymous]

just make a smart ass comment when your mind fails to have any point to make which is most of the time

sorry to confuse you so consistently

[Anonymous]

What about the families of the deathstar contractors..ptwcc(pass the weed cough cough)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about the families of the deathstar contractors..ptwcc(pass the weed cough cough)

I'll be forwarding you all relevant medical bills that resulted from your comment making me fall out of my chair lol'ing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pass the weed cough, cough look black helicopters

LOL! That's pretty good, pp!

[Anonymous]

I would love to see every one of the teachers fired. There are plenty of teachers looking for jobs who would love to take their place. I have zero sympathy for them. They are being asked to contribute to their retirement and health care just like most of the rest of the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/02/25/the-wisconsin-lie-exposed-taxpayers-actually-contribute-nothing-to-public-employee-pensions


Governor Walker insists he wants state workers to "contribute more" to their pensions. He is making it sound as though state workers have cushy retirement benefits, paid for by taxpayers. But this article shows that state workers fund their retirement out of their own salaries.

Very interesting--thanks for posting. Gotta hand it to the Republicans--they've done a great job of skirting the truth and deflecting blame for the current financial crisis onto ordinary folks like public employees.

[Anonymous]

And the journalists reporting on this story haven't even been checking to see if what Walker is saying is true.

http://agreetodisagree.me/2011/02/25/lazy-journalists-fail-correct-gov-walkers-assertion-state-employees-contribute-pensions-health-plans

[Anonymous]

Add another one to the list of Wisconsin myths: Over at Forbes.com, Rick Ungar has posted a piece that purports to show that Gov. Scott Walker is lying about how government-employee pensions are funded in Wisconsin. His thesis, drawing on this piece by David Cay Johnston, is that Wisconsin state employees participate in a deferred-compensation program, whereby they set aside their own money and the government matches it:

The pension plan is the direct result of deferred compensation — money that employees would have been paid as cash salary but choose, instead, to have placed in the state operated pension fund where the money can be professionally invested (at a lower cost of management) for the future.

His conclusion, therefore, is that 100 percent of the pension benefits currently received by state- and local-government employees is borne by the employees themselves:

If the Wisconsin governor and state legislature were to be honest, they would correctly frame this issue. They are not, in fact, asking state employees to make a larger contribution to their pension and benefits programs as that would not be possible — the employees are already paying 100% of the contributions.

What they are actually asking is that the employees take a pay cut.

Unfortunately, his “smoking gun” is not true. Not even close.

The Wisconsin Retirement System and deferred compensation are two completely separate things. Full-time state- and local-government employees are participants in the Wisconsin Retirement System, which uses taxpayer money to fund both the state (around 5 percent of salary) and employee (another 5 percent) contributions to their pensions.

On top of that, if they choose, state employees can participate in the deferred-comp plan, where they decide how much of their money to set aside, pre-tax, and a portion is matched by the state. That is in addition to their traditional pension contribution.

All this can be found in Chapter 40 of the Wisconsin State Statutes, which clearly demarcates each program in separate subchapters. Further, the Wisconsin Retirement System is explained in detail in this paper from the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

This is what happens when national writers become instant experts in state-benefit issues — expect a correction post soon. Sadly, the toothpaste might already be out of the tube.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Add another one to the list of Wisconsin myths:

It would be nice if you linked to the source from which you copied and pasted this. That would allow us to evaluate the source as well as give the original author credit.