POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

SuperDuper Public Pension Roundup! 1Mar2011

I've got a metric shit-ton (that's the technical term. Google it.) of tabs open right now, and they MUST! BE! CLOSED!

So let's kick it.

CALIFORNIA
This story is so bad, it gets top billing:

Two high-ranking officials at the Orange County Employees Retirement System have been placed on paid leave in connection with a $228 million mistake that has resulted in multi-million dollar pension catch-up bills for agencies countywide.

In particular, the Orange County Fire Authority has been handed a catch-up bill of $76 million – the amount of contributions that went uncollected for eight years for “special pay” stipends for paramedics, EMT’s, and others with specialized jobs.

“To get a bill like that was devastating,” said Joe Kerr, president of the 800-member Orange County Professional Firefighters. “How could this oversight have gone on for so many years?”

OCERS has agreed to let the firefighters pay the bill over a 25-year period, at $4.5 million a year, beginning in July, said Lori Zeller, OCFA assistant chief of business services.

Now, I've made substantial errors in my time, but nothing like that. That took some doing. I have a feeling that more than those two will end up gone by the time that mess is cleaned up. If it gets cleaned up. This has been going on since 2003, it seems.

This next one is actually more important, and I will write a separate post on this later....in my copious free time. Ha. This is the Little Hoover Commission reviewing public pensions in California:

But a new report from the Little Hoover Commission in Sacramento makes a more troubling point: Many state and local government employees have been promised pensions that the public couldn't have afforded even had there been no crash.

The commission's analysis of the problem is hotly disputed by union leaders, who contend that the financial woes of pension funds have been overblown. The commission's recommendations are equally controversial: Among other things, it urges state lawmakers to roll back the future benefits that current public employees can accrue, raise the retirement age and require employees to cover more pension costs. Given that state courts have rejected previous attempts to alter the pensions already promised to current workers, the commission's recommendation amounts to a Hail Mary pass. Yet it's one worth throwing.

Here's a link to the full report, and a short overview of the report's contents. Across the pond is a similar study, with more incendiary language -- calling public pensions "Madoff-style pyramids". And yet another report -- most public pension plans are in crisis.

Look. The unions had better think about what they're going to be able to live with, b/c "I've got mine" ain't going to work. They don't got theirs til all the cash is in hand, and they're dead, no longer receiving pension payments. That stuff can be taken away, as a practical matter, at any time.

States cannot run the printing presses. The money can, indeed, run out. Current retirees, forget about current employees, can get dinged in a major way.

Many states and cities are making changes right now to try to make sure the promises might actually have a chance of being achieved. And that may involve a variety of benefit haircuts, amongst other things.

Some people are still in denial about these possibilities. "It's illegal!" they cry. Ask the retirees of Prichard, Alabama if legality pays their pensions. Because they've gotten nothing since 2009.

So quit having the vapors over changing benefits for current employees and thinking there must be some more rich people to tax. It can, and will, get much worse than that.

That's it for my commentary. Now it's time for the link explosion.

Charter amendment in L.A. to roll back public safety benefits.

Showdown brewing over CA state employee pensions.

Employee pensions much higher than advertised.

A rundown of the proposals Brown had made during his gubernatorial campaign.

Tim Cavanaugh from Reason on how public pensions killed California. More on pensions bankrupting California.

Reform sought by Orange County Republicans...including the newly popular "Let's rescind collective bargaining!" Kevin Williamson explains that it's not the collective bargaining that makes for the awful amounts of public employee benefits, but the mere political existence of public employee unions. Back to those O.C. pols: more coverage of their proposals. And yet more coverage.

Considering defined contribution plans for public safety workers in San Diego.

Pension crisis? What pension crisis? Almost 200 California plans raise benefits.

FLORIDA

Revision to Florida pension bill, requiring more employee contributions as part of Governor Scott's push to reform Florida pensions. There have been lots of editorials supporting Scott's proposed changes. Scott compared the Florida situation to Social Security problems.

Evidently, part-timers had been getting pensions from Florida.

Looking at pension reform choices in FL. More considering what needs to be done in Florida.

Analysts say Florida fund is okey-dokey. So...have they fixed that "sole trustee" issue, yet? More on that analysis.

RHODE ISLAND

Rhode Island has highest unfunded pension liability per capita

PBS Newshour coverage of the Rhode Island incipient pension disaster

A tale of Providential double-dipping.

More on Rhode Island's pension squeeze.

MISSISSIPPI

Mississippi puts off increasing pension fund contributions

VIRGINIA

Plan to divert school funds to pension funds not popular

NEW YORK

Reminder that Cuomo said he wants to tackle pensions. He's been pretty quiet lately, hasn't he?

Mayor Bloomberg also proposed pension cuts, noting that the city has no power in negotiating those.

NEW JERSEY

It's the heavyweight champeen Gov. Christie in this corner against flyweight MD Gov. O'Malley, duking it out over pension reform.

Massive head for the exits in NJ... might as well collect benefits before the money runs out.

Christie says NJ pensions will be broke by 2020 without reform. I guess he's been reading John Bury. Even with reforms, the future isn't bright.

D.C.

D.C. pensions need reform, too.

WISCONSIN (v. MINNESOTA)

A comparison of what WI and MI employees pay for their pensions.

More on the Wisconsin employee benefits and collective bargaining.

Wisconsin's pension fund one of the financially healthiest in the country.

OHIO

Burden of pension reforms to be put on employees for Ohio's five pension plans.

Keep an eye on this court case about retiree health benefits....because post-retirement healthcare is considered one of the weakest benefits in most public employee benefits packages, because almost all of that is pay-as-you-go -- and that's most definitely =not= sustainable.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

GOP proposals for NH pension reforms.

Public employees protest pension reforms.

ILLINOIS

Governor claims that Illinois pensions won't need federal bailout. HA HA HA. Wow, he's getting good at that stand-up act.

TEXAS

Teacher pension plan working against spiking- the practicing of goosing the final year salary to get a higher pension payout.

GENERAL ISSUES

And now, in the interest of some balance, something from a Teamsters leader.

And another pro-public employee point-of-view...it's actually reasonable, though. You should read this one.

The problem is that the blame game doesn't get the pensions paid. Progressives try to gin up a class war and find the haves v. have-nots weren't the classes they had in mind.

The best case scenario at this point for many public employees is to end up in the same system as most private workers, and most will get at least some of the benefits originally promised them.

Prichard won't be the last case of a public pension going totally under and the retirees ending up with nothing. So people should make their plans accordingly.