STILL ATTACKING PUBLIC PENSIONS...

We are under attack. We have been for sometime now actually. There are groups out there that have been attacking our public pensions and those of nurses, police officers, teachers, etc.

Now these groups are using a different weapon in their attack on our pensions. This weapon is the Wall Street Journal, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch.

We all agree and understand that our country is facing a retirement security issue. Approximately 2 weeks ago the Wall Street Journal published an article calling for the elimination of pensions for nurses, firefighters, police officers and just about anyone else that has a public sector pension. Calling for complete elimination? Really? These same people already destroyed private sector workers retirements by completely dismantling Wall Street and the Stock Market not too many years ago. Now they want to make sure any concept of a secure retirement for working Americans is nothing more than a thing of the past.

Here are some numbers that you may not be aware of. The average AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) member, which are the men and women who fix our streets, care for our sick, protect out children, clean our buildings and keep our community safe, receives a pension on the average of $19,000 a year after a career of public service. These public employees have earned and paid for these pensions. You see employee contribution rates vary anywhere from 3% to 10% (if not higher) of their paychecks. These contributions, along with the investment earnings, usually account for at least 75% or more of all pension benefit funding.

The economic crash in 2008 and 2009 took a toll on everyone's retirement savings for sure. But what must be said is that the public pension system (which were fully or nearly fully funded before the crash) continues to recover robustly, earning their highest returns in decades in the fiscal year of 2011. These pensions continue to provide an irreplaceable (sometimes keeping people just above poverty) retirement security to millions of Americans who provided us with public services for decades. Yet the opponents of public pensions are trying to create the myth that this system is falling apart and that state and local governments are going bankrupt because of the average $19,000 a year pension public workers are earning.

THIS IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE....

During our research we found that according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the size of the projected state and local government pension funding shortfalls is manageable. In most states the total shortfall for the pension funds is less than 0.2% of projected gross state product during the next 30 years. Now even in states with the largest shortfalls, the gap is less than 0.5% of projected state product during that same period. Because pension payments are made over generations of workers, funding can remain stable over long periods of time and funding challenges managed over decade long periods - even with short term economic set backs.

These are facts that the opponents of public pensions simply ignore, as they try to punish public pensions for Wall Street's bad behavior.

The Wall Street Journal's page last week made an argument for radically transforming the retirement savings of working Americans. The article laid out a ridiculous plan to end guaranteed retirement accounts, and in some cases requiring workers to forfeit their life savings by forcing public workers to enrich and pad the pockets of the Wall Street firms that already demonstrated their severe inability to produce resources to meet retirees needs. To top it off the plan the Journal laid out would cost taxpayers significantly more than the current plan. This would transfer even more taxpayer money into the pockets of Wall Street bankers. Hmmm I think I see how this works now..

This plan would put the retirement savings of millions of public pension middle class Americans into a casino like 401(k) system. Now it is a known fact that in the private sector this type of system has failed. If implemented this type of plan could completely devour the ability of these public servants to retire with any semblance of security after decades of serving the public. It is also true that the average household with a 401(k) retirement plan has less than 1/4 of the savings they need for retirement.

The notion that public employees do not accept reductions like their private sector counterparts do is FALSE. 40 states have reduced benefits or increased employee contributions in public pensions in the last two years.

Public pension funds face manageable challenges and the same cannot be said for the 401(k) system that Wall Street and corporations forced onto the private sector. We now know 401(k)s do not meet the one true test of effectiveness: economic security for retirement.

We need to make sure more Americans have REAL and SECURE retirements and not let corporations and government officials transfer our life savings into the unsteady hands of Wall Street. We know what happens when they get their hands on our savings.

So they have a new weapon in their fight, The Wall Street Journal. Now we have our weapons KNOWLEDGE and LOOSE TOPICS....