Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Pricey pension pandering

From the NY Post:

Bowing to union pressure, legislators are proposing a sweeping pension bill that would allow thousands of state and city government workers to retire early with full benefits — at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to taxpayers, The Post has learned.

The early-retirement push clashes with Gov. Cuomo’s drive — backed by Mayor Bloomberg — to scale back pension costs.

The Assembly measure would allow public employees, including city teachers, to retire with full benefits at age 55 with 25 years of service.

Many public employees have to work at least 27 or 30 years before earning full retirement benefits. Others have to work until age 62 to qualify.

The bill’s sponsors admitted it would increase the state pension system’s cost by $167 million and boost city pension costs by tens of millions of dollars.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

What it is in the water that makes public employees think they are entitled to something that disappeared from the private sector 20 years ago for most people?

Anonymous said...

Many public employees have to work at least 27 or 30 years before earning full retirement benefits. Others have to work until age 62 to qualify.
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by comparison, a big time developer only need to work a year to two on a big project to pocket what an entire local would get after a generation.

Anonymous said...

how about our pols.

spend months campaigning (or as in the case of mystery man mike gianaris get caught working for the party and not the community) and get a nice package.

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 1: The contracts that their unions negotiated with the city and state governments, That's what.

Anonymous said...

What it is in the water that makes public employees think they are entitled to something that disappeared from the private sector 20 years ago for most people?
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The better question is why aren't private sector employees pushing to get the same benefits as publc employees?

Anonymous said...

private employees do not have politicians on the city council and state legislature,bribed with union dues,who rubber stamp their wage ,benefit packages.

the public union worker does.....the free lunch is over....NYC=GREECE ?

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 6:

But you're in favor of continuing corporate free lunches (Farm subsidies, etc.)?

Anonymous said...

Politicians no longer represent citizens. They represent the public employee unions for whom they negotiate these pension deals and get repaid with campaign contributions. These "negotiations" are (and have been for decades) a sham.

You can dream on if you think private sector employees are going to work until they are 70 to let public sector employees retire at 50.

For a public sector employee to get $10 for every $1 a private sector employee gets in non-salary benefits is simply unsustainable.

For comparison, Greece 11 million, New York City 8 million (official count)

Alfredo Centola said...

You want to talk about unions and benefits, take a look at the Union Representatives collecting two and sometimes three salaries. Look at that, get rid of that first. Look at the Union leaders who never spent a day on the Beat, in a Fire, in a Classroom, in a Jail, or on a Garbage truck and yet the collect salaries of over $200,000 plus expense accounts. That on top of "Representatives" collecting their City salary on top of their Union salary plus expenses, THAT IS WASTE AND SHOULD BE CUT OUT.

After you do that, go after the Politicians and their pensions the same way you would go after the union membership, you know the every day Working Class. When you do that , then maybe I will listen about cutting everything else.

I bet if you do that, there would be no further discussion on the topic.

Anonymous said...

Politicians no longer represent citizens. They represent developers and corporate interests for whom they negotiate these corporate welfare and land grab deals and get repaid with 'bundled' campaign contributions. These "negotiations" are (and have been for decades) a sham.

Anonymous said...

#7...as long as you got passed the censor....it gives me a chance to respond to your out of area comment.

"DEMOCRAT(Fla.) U.S. SEN Bill NELSON "FARMS " six cows to dodge $43,000. in property tax, all the while supporting Obama's spending spree" Tampa Bay Times/big gov..com/wynton hall.

is it a fact that ,Obamas pal & appointee ,C.E.O. of General Electric Corp. pays NO CORPORATE TAX? they have a staff of over 100 tax experts that look for loopholes in the U.S.tax code. it is legal and is the American way.

do you send more money to the I.R.S than you owe ?

Anonymous said...

RE: AL.C....it all sounds good....in reality,the union/political complex is a money laundering scam ,that the private sector is forced to finance.

it has to end ,because the contracts are UNSUSTAINABLE.

as long as your union votes are public , nothing will change. voting should be done secretly. public employee strikes must be unlawful.

citizens do not come forward to whistle blow, if they can be retaliated on......

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 11:

Passed the censor? Your paranoia keeps growing, Gramps.

And I'm gettiing a very nice refund this year. Thanks for asking.

You pay your taxes yet?

Anonymous said...

Public employee strikes unlawful? Why? As of now it is unlawful and the city is not penalized when they refuse to negotiate in good faith. When the mayor goes to the table and drops a three page contract when it used to be say, a hundred, that is in bad faith. So he walks away and refuses to come back. What are the workers to do? They acted in good faith, if they strike they get fined, what happens to the city?

Anonymous said...

RE:#13...".passing the censor ?"

check out the post "we are still paying for bloomberg's negligence" and then read the DN link. do you find the difference in text strange? especially the headlines?

do you think this topic should have more than 5 comments ? censoring ......

Anonymous said...

20 years ago private sector employees made double what civil service earned.you can't have it both ways.......

Anonymous said...

Private sector job pensions since 1974 have had to be fully funded by the end of each year.

Public sector job pensions have never been funded on a real (i.e. actuarial) basis. The majority of the taxpayers who will be paying for the public sector pension liabilities incurred in 1992 were not even born in 1992, and some have not yet been born.

Salaries show up in budgets in the current year. Future pension liabilities do not show up in budgets. That explains why pols in 1992 were happy to be generous with the future's money.

Anonymous said...

RE;#7.....the auto workers union at G.M (Gov. obamamotors)who own much of the company, may be getting an increase in benefits soon ? they recently were cut.

it is reported that C.E.O/Jeff Immelt ,G.E.Corp.(pal & appointee of obama), has directed all outside G.E. employees to order G.M.Chevy Volts, in order to get company car expense reimbursement.
no other car model will be considered for the expense reimbursement.

for the libs here ,this was heard on the limbaugh show, with a G.E.inside directive notice report as source.
this news will immediately appear on CNN,NBC,CBS,ABC, & MSNBC. stay tuned.

Anonymous said...

just to prove my loyalty to Q.C, i read Big Government . com AFTER making the last comment here.

Big Government reports that "G.E. IS "FORCING "EMPLOYEES TO BUY THE CHEVY VOLT "

source ,"GREEN CARS"

read it and confirm "CRONY CAPITALISM" in the dem.obama administration, linked to union pension pandering.

Big Hairy Balls said...

Here we go again with the constant whining over city pensions. I'll keep saying it until I'm blue in the face. I taught math in the NYC public schools for 30 years. After serving in Viet Nam (USAF) I became a math teacher. I thought it was a good deal at the time and as a retiree I still think it was a good deal. When I went into teaching there were few takers. I put in my time and taught a population of children that typically lacked serious parenting. I put up with abuse and constant BS while keeping my eye on the prize. If you whiners want a job with real security then teach HS math. Most of you probably will just complain instead. Long live Queens Crapper! Long live my AMAZING NYC pension. (Jealous?) Death to Iran! Long live Israel! Long live your parent's basement!

Anonymous said...

I wonder how much money Gianaris and Simotas took from Pistilli.