Reply to States' fiscal condition

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]GMU/Koch propoganda[/quote]

+1
Mercator has an agenda[/quote]

What exactly is the agenda?   [/quote]

They are free marketeers who believe states should not have pension systems.[/quote]

Ok. And if the poorly run pension system literally bankrupts the state...you wouldn't agree? [/quote]

Only if the state has some alternate plan to provide retirement benefits to its employees.

Right now, most public sector employees get pensions but are not eligible for Social Security or other public retirement benefits. If you eliminate pensions, you need to somehow backfill that hole. (I'm not at all opposed to eliminating them conceptually--our state's are all in abysmal shape--but I also don't think you can suddenly pull the rug out from so many retirees who rely on pensions because they don't receive Social Security, and the only way states have found to fulfill their obligations with past employees is to continue to have current employees pay into the system.) If it were feasible to eliminate it for current employees while paying down the past obligations to then sunset the system, I think many states would jump on that--but where would the money come from? (As is, most have substantially reduced benefits for recent hires relative to those who started a generation or two ago.) You'd also then need to find other ways to make some of those jobs appealing to people, since the pension and benefits are a big part of the employment package for public sector employees who could earn much higher salaries in the private sector.

I will also say that at least a chunk of our state's pension issues are related to rampant borrowing against the pension by the state in the past, which is a separate and also problematic issue. [/quote]

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