The Public Employee Pension Transparency Act (PEPTA) needs to pass. The arguments against it made by Keith Brainard of NASRA and the National Council on Teacher Retirement (NCTR) are fallacious and easily dismissed….by point:
1) It’s not needed since “to my (Brainard’s) knowledge, no public pension plan has asked for federal assistance and hopefully none will.” Though Prichard, Alabama likely should, Section 4(a) of the bill specifically precludes federal bailouts.
2) “Every state is not in a form of crisis. Certainly, there are some states that need serious attention sooner rather than later,” he (Brainard) said, adding that New Jersey and Illinois had chronically failed to make their required contributions. And with PEPTA those states will have a strong incentive not to get to the point where their pensions are in crisis.
3) Public pension reporting is already transparent through CAFR requirements which “are audited, publicly available and can be easily accessed by anyone” (per NCTR talking point). If so, then point me to where I can find the CAFR for Prichard, AL or Hamden, CT or Passaic County, NJ or any of the other tens of thousands of localities that sponsor their own unregulated pension plans.
4) “State and local government retirement systems are already required to adhere to strict accounting standards set by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board” (per NCTR talking point). How has New Jersey been interpreting that word ‘required’?
Taxpayers, bondbuyers, and plan participants deserve to be told the truth. PEPTA is a good first step. Contact House Ways & Means Chairman Dave Camp (202-225-9679) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (202-225-2815) to urge them to advance the Public Employee Pension Transparency Act (H.R. 567) through the Ways & Means Committee and to the House floor for a vote. The legislation currently has 50 cosponsors.
Posted by Tough Love on May 11, 2011 at 3:54 pm
Clearly, the reason Public Sector Unions, Civil Servants ,and their supporters do NOT want PEPTA passed is because it will show the true (VERY poor) positions (underfunding, etc) these Plans are in.
Being much worse than the current “official” figures, this would increase pressure to reform (i.e., REDUCE) pensions from the current skys-the-limit benefits they have today.
The operative position of these cancerous Unions is to stop, to delay, to distort, to distract, and to …. grab grab, grab more & more & more….. and to hell with the taxpayers.
Posted by skip3house on May 11, 2011 at 4:05 pm
Before the fan gets hit, NJ better eliminate the property tax so we don’t have to sell the kitchen, bath, and a bedroom when blackmail is used to make good on our ‘obligations.’
Posted by Larry Littlefield on May 12, 2011 at 2:15 pm
It’s really mystifying, and somewhat disgusting, for public employee unions to oppose the acknowledgement of realities.
They are putting future pensioners at risk, to justify their past retroactive enhancements, and losing their moral authority to demand that taxpayers live up to their original promises.
And the justification I like least: things are OK because there is enough money for those already retired, or near retirement. Generation Greed isn’t so worried about union members of later generations, who would then choose between the elimination of public services (and their jobs) and the elimination of their pensions.
Posted by Tough Love on May 12, 2011 at 3:57 pm
Larry, Don’t be naive, the 9% increase in 2001, while unjustified and annoying, it is a minor element of the mess were in. With the taxpayer paid-for share of the value of NJ Pensions ROUTINELY 2, 4, even 6 times (for Police) greater than comparably paid Private sector taxpayers a rollback of the 9% is woefully inadequate.
TO bring pension accruals for FUTURE service down sufficiently to eliminate the Civil Servant “advantage”, they would have to roll-back the formula by 50-75% … less if Post-retirement COLAs were PERMANENTLY eliminated and/or age 65 were made the normal retirement age (for ALL employees) with a proper actuarial reduction of 5-6% per year of age when collecting before age 65.