Bailout Cost

The Teamsters support the passage of the Butch Lewis Act of 2017 (BLA) which was introduced in Congress in November 2017 by Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts to bail out bankrupt multiemployer pensions. As to the cost, their press release asserts:

Opponents of the bill have attempted to poke holes in it by saying it would cost too much. Some had estimated the 10-year cost would be upwards of $100 billion. However, the Congressional Budget Office [CBO] in September put the decade-long cost at $34 billion instead. The Teamsters’ own evaluation of the bill places the cost at $30.1 billion.

So where did that $100 billion number come from?

Breaking News: Two More Plans Get MPRA Letters

Last April both the Plasterers Local 82 Pension Fund of Portland, OR and the Plasterers and Cement Masons Local No. 94 Pension Fund out of Harrisburg, PA submitted applications under MPRA to cut benefits. According to the MPRA website both got response letters dated November 8, 2018.

NJCPA On Path

The New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJCPA) this week strongly endorsed the pension and benefit reform recommendations spelled out by New Jersey’s Economic and Fiscal Policy Workgroup in its “Path to Progress” report. In conjunction with the press release the group also had a conversation with Senate President Steve Sweeney from which the following clips are taken:

The Actuary Documentary

The actuarial profession has not received much attention from filmmakers since these clips from a 1948 classic:
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However that may all change if the New York City Office of the Actuary (NYCOA) has its way.

Land of Liabilities

Truth in Accounting on Monday sponsored a presentation by James E. Spiotto on how to address Illinois’ constitutional pension crisis.

Among the highlights:

Bailout Committee Election Results

Now that we have a  Democratic House of Representatives the chances are excellent for some sort of bailout of multiemployer plans to be legislated in the next Congress. That is, unless those Democrats on the bailout committee fared poorly in yesterday’s election thus sending some sort of message. Here are the committee members with results for those who had races:

Gubernatorial Results for Pensions

As a followup to the last blog about states where public pensions are something of an issue in the election for governor, here is how it turned out: