ATTACKING FIRE FIGHTERS PENSIONS....

There is something we should know. Fire Fighters pensions are under attack. Now attacks on fire fighters are nothing new really, this is just the newest one out there right now. Actually this attack has been going on for some time, but most people may not be aware of it.

Well no longer....

Now this isn't to say that all the other attacks on fire fighters have gone away, because that is far from the truth. This is just another one by politicians to try and find an answer to their mistakes.

AFTER A CAREER OF SAVING LIVES, THEY WANT TO TAKE THEIR LIFE SAVINGS.

In today's reality, fire fighters are still battling staffing cuts, pay cuts, rolling brownouts, increased contributions to pensions, decreases in funding, huge increases in insurance costs, station closures, etc...Yet every time their phone number is dialed, 9-1-1, when someone is in need of help they respond quickly without ever second guessing.

This is happening everywhere from New Jersey to Ohio, from New York to Texas. The question then becomes why? The answer is easy really, the politicians and government officials have found a way to help themselves balance a deficit laden budget, that they themselves along with the help of their Wall Street friends, created.

By attempting to try and force fire fighters into retirement plans that will cost more in fees and other costs, it will drive profits up for the Wall Street players. And we all know how Wall Street players and politicians go hand in hand. If one is making profits so is the other one.

There is a myth being circulated out there by government officials that says, that so many of fire fighter pension plans are in such drastic conditions they are a liability. This is just not true. Over 80% of retirement plans for fire fighters are funded at 80% or better. They are not in terrible unfunded situations.

Want an example of their mistakes, take the state of New Jersey who had a 7.5 billion dollar surplus in their pension in1994. 3 billion dollars was basically taken from this pension by Christine Wittman who was going to use this money for tax cuts she promised. Since that time the state has not paid above 58% into the pension plan, while the fire fighters pay every time, with every check. For 4 years the state of New Jersey never paid a penny into the pension for the fire fighters and created a 35 billion dollar deficit. Now their governor is blaming the fire fighters pension for causing an economic problem. Wrong.

That is just one example of how fire fighter pensions are being used against them. Like we stated earlier, this is happening everywhere though. There are thousands of cities with fire departments that have given back pay raises, that have not received pay raises, so that they can help the local and state governments with funding problems. And in return? They want the pensions of the same fire fighters that are helping them.

There is data that was released not to long ago about local and state government pensions and how they contradict what these politicians are saying.

There is a fact sheet and brief that was released on Feb. 1st, 2011 by 10 national, state, and local government organizations that pointed to the solvency of the overwhelming majority of pension funds, which have more then 2.7 trillion dollars in assests held in trust for current and future retirees. According to these 10 organizations these funds are sufficient to continue paying promised benefits well into the future.

According to the same 10 organizations, which are the National Conference of State Legislators, National Assoc. of Counties, United States Conference of Mayors, National League of Cities, International City/County Management Assoc., National Assoc. of State Auditors Comptrollers and Treasurers, Gov. Finance Officers Assoc., International Personnel Management Assoc. for Human Resources, National Council on Teacher Retirement and the National Assoc. of State Retirement Administrators, retirement systems remain a small portion of state and local government budgets. This amounting to approx. 3%.

So this data clearly provides evidence that most fire fighters pension funds are well funded and are very sound.

Now of course there are some fire fighter pension funds that are unfunded liabilities, like New Jersey, but we now know why that is don't we. But overall most local pensions are very well funded. Take New York for instance. New York's pensions are more then 100% funded, yet their governor is pledging to cut their pensions.

What these politicians and government officials do not tell the general public is that it is really them that will be hurt by switching these fire fighters from a proven pension system to a radical new system. Why?

It will be the taxpayers that will end up footing the bill for the high cost change of switching plans. Estimates indicate that those costs to shut down a traditional pension system and set thousands, if not millions of new private accounts and to educate the participants could reach into the millions of dollars. That's right taxpayers millions of dollars. Where will that money then go? Like we said straight back to the Wall Street managers who lost the money in the first place.

Some reading this article may be thinking, well that won't happen here in Texas. Wrong again.

A group of high powered Houston business leaders are starting a statewide campaign to overhaul retirement for future fire fighters, teachers, police officers, and other state and local government workers.

The group is called Texans for Public Pension Reform, which is nothing more then a giant chamber of commerce from Houston. But this group has the financial backing to definitely cause a stir, its members represent 1.5 trillion dollars in assests.

The group claims the taxpayers bear too much risk on behalf of public employees by providing them a guaranteed retirement that most private sector workers do not get.

But according to the director of the National Assoc. of State Retirement Administrators, government pensions provide retirement security for millions of Texans in a cost effective manner for the taxpayer.

Research by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College shows that professionally managed pension funds produce better investment returns the 401(k) and cost less to administer.

The Houston based group essentially wants to take away the defined benefit ( or guaranteed money) public retirees were promised and replace it with a risky 401(k) type investments. Taking those firefighters money and giving right back to the people that caused this problem in the first place, Wall Street. See the underlining theme here.

By doing this, the plan now puts the risk on the public retiree and there is no guarantee of income throughout the retiree's lifetime.

Public pensions help keep many fire fighters in our state out of poverty when the retire and no longer can work. Giving more money to the ones with the most money already, makes everyone else worse off. That is what will happen to these fire fighters. Let's stop these politicians and Wall Street players from taking away these people's life savings, after they spent their lives saving others.