Unfunded Public Employee Pension Liabilities Are Larger Then We Have Been Told.

See my comment to Diane S

Should All be Prevailing Wage and Standard Benefits as Regular Workers in Like Occupation..

time to get rid of this entire administration.

This has been going on way before this administration. It is time the law applies equally to ALL. If you or I negotiated a contract with someone whom we had given hundreds of thousands of dollars to, we would be charged with influence peddling and or Conflict of Interest.

you won't get an arguement from me.

Government at all levels is killing us with unfunded and overly generous pensions. Among the worse are for those elected to office.

More maddening is that not only do Congress members and federal employees get their union or congressional retirement, they get Social Security benefits.

Unions have been promised pensions and benefits that are unreasonable to avoid strikes and other work actions.. now is time to trim the budget.. some of these things have to go.. at least part of them does.. no one else has these exhorbitant benefits..time to get the scissors out.

Sadly, there is no real way short of filing bankruptcy to void the current contracts for the employees at or near retirement.

well probably many of them are actually bankrupt taking into account the liabilities and assets..

We are bankrupt in all aspects.

People have to learn that the taxpayers' pockets are not bottomless sources of unearned funding.

Cut them off from the trough.

I agree, but the legal issues would be very tricky. Of course we both know that all those who have to pony up more for their own retirement are going to be mad. Union members and mad makes for a circus to ensue.

Governments are allowed to declare bankruptcy without the hassle of bankruptcy- Any benefit can be legislated away if the legislators are brave enough to do the right thing.

Brave and Legislator are, in my opinion not even close to being in the same neighborhood.

I know a few.

Many are in Wisconsin.

The system HAS to be changed before it's too late, if it isn't already.

Raiding the pension funds or not paying what should be paid has happened for the last 40 years with increasing frequency as the political ho's want to give social programs and keep taxes low to be re-elected. So the can gets kicked down the road again and again.

Never heard of it happening in Union accounts, especially Public Employee Unions. Private accounts, yes. Have I missed any cases of raided union pension funds?

Try New Jersey where the previous governor to Christie got over 1 billion out of the teacher's pension. New Jersey also forgot to pay into the pensions for over 20 years their part and that's why the system is in trouble.

I did not know about the Jersey scam. I don't think any of the local, state or federal government pay into a pension fund per say. That is why they are Unfunded Liabilities.

This madness occurs from coast to coast. All government employees have a pension system including the Federal. Now in NJ all Police and Fire members paid 8.5% of their gross salary to the pension which was matched by who ever employed them, municipal, county or state to the State of New Jersey Police and Fire pension. Now the teacher's pension and governmental employees allowed the State to raid their pensions but police and fire did not. So the State stopped making the required payments since about the last 20 years in the proper amounts and a few other governmental employers did the same. When I left and retired the pension was at 101% of future obligations and in ten years it went down to 59%. This is from non payment and loss of compounding on investment.
The Feds the last raise the debt crisis , Geither had said he wasn't giving the Federal system a pension payment to save money. You will find that many states and lower governments forgot to pay the pension funds so they wouldn't have to raise taxes or they wanted to fund some social program or a way to balance the books.

I've known for a very long time that all government (local, state and federal don't deposit funds into an actual pension fund. I've said it before and I'll say it again, ALL government entities whether local or federal should be held to the same regulator requirements I and others as independent private employers are held. If I had raided my employees retirement accounts or "forgot" to make the necessary deposits into their accounts, I'd be in jail.

There are actual pension funds for govermental employees and you are right about actual responsibilities. Politicians have always believed they are above the law and getting the law to apply to them is going to be very rough.

the reality is that those in those underfunded accounts will be getting less than expected.

everyone. save. invest. save yourself. no one can save you but you.

They negotiated the contracts with the very politicians they paid for and short of bankruptcy, those contracts have to be honored. The taxpayer is screwed again.

they don't have to be honored. especially if they can't be honored.

we have something like 50 TRILLION in CDO and CDS liability hanging over our baning system. technically, they are broke, too.

if you can't honor your obligation, you ARE broke.

But, can the US Government declare bankruptcy?

heh. scary, isn't it? i think that we've been broke since 2007 and the only thing keeping us going is 0% fed funds.

You may be right. If Uncle Bennie ever decides to raise rates, we are so screwed. The market is already wanting another "Fix" of freshly printed money. I hope Ben doesn't cave to that desire. Let the market fall.

its like giving more heroin to an addict.

rates will go up when risk drives it up. at some point, the system will get so wobbly, Uncle Ben won't be able to stop it.

yeah. QE III. i want to puke...

I don't want my kids and grandkids paying for the PUBLIC union employee pensions and for BIG FAT GOVERNMENT pensions.. they are going to be in for a BIG surprise when they find out they will be getting 0$

It could even hit you and I. I have tried to secure my own retirement, but they keep trying to find ways to take that from us too.

FDR warned that public sector unions were dangerous. File bankruptcy, all union contracts will be null and void. That or go broke.

I was trying to remember which President said that. Thanks for the reminder.

Dems got kick backs from gov unions in campaign funds !!!!!!

Democrats and unions together is a criminal organization.

Why are there Unfunded Public Employee Pensions? These pension liabilities did not just crop up overnight. These are part of an agreement the public sector employers made with their employees. If the employee fulfilled their end of the agreement then the employer is duty bound to fulfill their end of that agreement. Now if a municipality, county or state government did not set aside the funds to fulfill their agreement how is that the employees fault? If the responsibility of the government can not be fulfilled then the government should claim bankruptcy not simply void the agreement. An agreement is an agreement. If they want to change things for new hires that is a different story.

While you are correct, but consider this. The unions pour lots of cash into getting particular politicians elected, then negotiate their contracts with that same politician. See anything illegal there? We also need to realize that most politicians get hooked on the power and money, not to mention the perks of the office and seem to forget all about the ability to see beyond their own noses. The funds for those pensions are spend on other projects they deem more important and think anything that comes up in the future won't be their problem because chances are they will have retired by then.

If we want to make the question about Unions then address the Union. There are many people who Union or not carried out their duties and worked many years for public employee wages because of the benefits that would come from those years of service. Now, many are trying to weasel out of that agreement by Union bashing of busting.