The latest political scapegoat has become public employee pensions. Top state officials in many states are blaming current and future pensions as budget busters. NYS Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has recently jumped on the pension bashing band wagon and is looking into legal action to erode them. Ironically, Cuomo is posturing himself for the Governorship.
The facts surrounding NYS public employee pensions and their affect on future budgets are being misrepresented. Are there current pensions that are out of line with the earnings on which they are based? Most certainly. However that problem was addressed in 1976, further in 1983, and again in 2009. In our tier system, only Tier 1 employees are earning no top end pensions. Tier 1 employees are those hired before 1973. Tier 2 employees can earn expanded but not unlimited pension and were all hired prior to 1976. Tiers 3-5 are stricly limited and comprise the bulk of current employees and therefore future retirees.
The fact is Tier 1 and 2 retirees make up a very small portion of the system and are dwindling each year.
This problem has been resolved, but for the sake of political expendiency, candidates are going to continue to make an issue where there is none. Let the facts be heard and not the rhetoric at the expense of some hard-working public employees.
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Tier 5 really got shafted but you don't hear about that! And when will we get a politician with some real savvy that will down size his own staff & government as a show of faith in leading the way out of this economic hole they have created?
ReplyDeleteMichele