Pensions
In a letter to the Providence Journal that doesn’t appear to be online, Karin Gorman expresses a feeling that many of us share: Things became heated [at a recent Operation Clean Government event] when state Rep. Larry Valencia, former president of [the organization], suggested that everyone needs to come to the table to solve the…
Somehow, I think we all expect Rhode Island to pursue the sort of inadequate solution to the pension crisis that consultant Joseph Newton described to the union-heavy pension advisory panel. Consider: Cost-of-living adjustments, instead of being based on a commonly used measure of inflation, would be based on how well the pension fund’s investments perform.…
Courtesy Ocean State Follies
Retired Cranston police captain Robert Barber feels very strongly that his pension should not be modified one bit: The mayors are asking the people who sacrificed their bodies, families and health for the service of the community to sacrifice more. Statistically, law-enforcement officers die 10 years earlier than the general population. The mayors are asking…
In a nutshell, my take on General Treasurer Gina Raimondo is that she’s free to take the politically risky steps of pushing pension reform because she ultimately lacks the power to implement it; that will fall to the General Assembly and the governor. The far left in the state was tickled by her election and…
I’m beginning to wonder whether all of the stories are like this or whether there’s some other reason so many of the people who step forward to be faces of the pension crisis seem unlikely to evoke sympathy. Here’s one from the hearing at which Central Falls Receiver Robert Flanders asked public-sector pensioners to agree…
It’s come up in the comment sections, but I’ve been meaning to comment on Michael Morse’s essay describing the ghosts that haunt the urban firefighter-EMT’s dreams after twenty years on the job since I first read it in early June. Michael puts those who focus on the affordability of public-sector pay and pensions in a…
Andrew pointed out yesterday that Speaker Fox is leaning against taking up binding arbitration in the special legislative session this fall. That would be a good thing because, last week, a Fitch rating emphasized the need for the focus to be on pension reform. RATING RATIONALE: –[West Warwick] has managed its operating expenses and achieved…
Looks like the Warwick Beacon has been doing some digging at City Hall. More than 40 percent of retired Warwick firefighters and 20 percent of retired police are on disability pensions. The pensions are tax-free and also ensure that their children and spouse are entitled to free tuition at state colleges. There has never been…
The lengthy comment-section discussion appended to my pension post, from yesterday, is worth following, but I wanted to tease out one suggested made by Providence firefighter Tom Kenney: The reason these systems are in such financial disarray? The state and the municipalities have continually deferred their expected (and required) contributions so much that the systems…
