March 2, 2011
Another Acronym to Track
My Patch column, this week, discusses the latest acronym with which active citizens must acquaint themselves:
... OPEB stands for "other post-employment benefits" and, in Tiverton for example, includes health, dental and life insurance covering employees and their families after their retirement.According to a press release announcing the issuance of the final report from the Rhode Island Senate Municipal Pension Study Commission, the unfunded OPEB promises that cities and towns have made to their employees amount to $2.4 billion. As the Providence Journal highlighted when reporting on the release, this is on top of about $2 billion in unfunded pension liabilities that cities and towns have incurred. ...
Eventually, of course, the bills begin to come due. Tiverton currently covers its OPEB responsibilities on a year-to-year, pay-as-you-go basis, amounting to nearly a million and a half dollars annually. For fiscal 2010, the expense was $1,362,886. That's more than 4% of the tax levy, for that year. It's also only 42% of the GASB-suggested payment (technically called an "annual required contribution"), which was $3,222,448. A payment of that size would have been 10% of the levy.
In fact, if Tiverton were to make the "required contribution" to all of its post-employment obligations, it would be storing away about 18% of its tax levy, each year, to keep public employees retiring young.
As any good public employee will tell you "Screw You, Pay Me".
Posted by: dave at March 2, 2011 7:33 AMAs any good public employee will tell you "Screw You, Pay Me".
Posted by dave at March 2, 2011 7:33 AM
LOL.
Unfortunately for the Smith Hill Mob the victims can (and do) easily leave the state, establish fake residency in Florida and evade sales taxes by means of the internet or a quick drive.
The gig is about up.
Justin,
You didn’t address the fact that if the Tiverton employees are paying in to social security automatically when you reach the age of 65 you are automatically switched over to Medicare and can opt to have their part A, B and D automatically deducted from their social security monthly stipend check or let OPEB pay which is a lot cheaper than before they turned age 65. The OPEB will only be required to cover their Medicare part D (prescriptions) or part C which is Advantage covering those services part A & B don’t cover and in some cases covering part D and/or dental and/or vision which is at a really reduced rate.
I pay my own medical and dental and when I moved from RI to HI my monthly payments dropped $100 a month for the same insurance with the same providers and when I turned 65 and was moved to Medicare my monthly payments were cut in half for the same medical and dental plus perscription drugs.
At least in HI healthcare reform has been operating for over 40 years and all people working 20 or more hours a week the business is required by state law to provide heathcare insurance.
For every year after your retirement under the State of RI retirement system the individual life insurance benefit is $16,000 reduced every year by 25% for the retiree to a minimum of $4,000 at time of death. So the longer you live in retirement the less death benefit in insurance. Right now an average funeral in RI cost about $10,000.