Rogue wrote:ok, it seems that the pensions of fed employees is still unfair and not balanced. it appears rick scott took action to get fl's more balanced. I can appreciate that.
people who are working in gov positions, any, be it teacher, police, social worker, Congress..etc, need to have the same responsibility as I do on paying into retirement plans.
I know this will piss some people off, but why should working for the gov give you so much moe benefits? The pay scale is already better for gov workers, something needs to give so we can get this budget under control. but no one wants to give up thier freebies.
Now heres a real kicker. It seems dumb people make more money if they work for the gov and smart peple make less working for the gov. I think this explains a lot of our problems
. heres a interesting article from cnn on the subject.
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On average, the federal government spends 48% more on benefits for its employees than private employers do.
As for salaries, federal workers make just 2% more than private sector workers.
But there's a big difference when you break it down by education.
For example, for federal workers with only a high school diploma, their benefits are 72% higher, and their wages are 21% higher than they would be in the private sector.
On the other hand, workers with doctorates or professional degrees are worse off working for the government. Their benefits are about the same and they earn 23% less than those in the private sector.
http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/31/do-federal-workers-deserve-better-benefits-and-higher-salaries-than-private-sector-employees/
Scott is an arse. There was no need for state workers to kick in 3% when the FRS is the most solvent of all state retirement systems in the United States. He has lost the lawsuit regarding this as well. I think he may have appealed it, but we are awaiting an answer.
Plenty of people were making fun of state workers for taking those jobs that pay quite less than what the private sector is paying for the same work. Everyone was laughing and yucking it up over our pay and now that they see our trade off for a below market salary was a decent, but no bank breaking retirement, they get all butt hurt.
Florida Supreme Court to hear oral arguments on FEA lawsuit over pension “contribution”
September 6, 2012
TALLAHASSEE – This Friday, September 7, the Florida Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Scott vs. Williams, the appeal of Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford’s ruling earlier this year that the 2011 pension law changes were unconstitutional.
When current public employees were hired, the state entered into a contractual agreement. It made a promise to teachers, law-enforcement officers, firefighters, nurses and other public-service workers that their retirement plan would be funded by the state. Mandating a 3-percent “contribution” breaks that promise and unfairly targets only public employees for a 3-percent tax increase.
FEA challenged the pension tax on state workers and won a ruling in FEA’s favor. Last March, Leon County Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford struck down the mandatory retirement contributions imposed since July 2011. She ordered refunds with interest for all employees enrolled in the FRS prior to July 2011. Governor Scott and legislative leaders were unhappy with the court ruling and decided to spend more taxpayer money for an appeal. The state spent over 500,000 on the first case.
The Circuit judge also ruled on the state’s efforts to impose a reduction in the cost-of-living adjustments for those retiring after July 1, 2011. Florida law requires a 3 percent cost-of-living increase during retirement regardless of years of service or dates of service. The trial judge agreed that the changes made by the legislature and the governor violated this contract with current state employees in the Florida Retirement System and also constituted taking private property without full compensation.
The Legislature broke its promise and broke its contract with current public employees. Legislative leaders deliberately chose to disregard the Florida Constitution and ignored constitutional law. The law says that the state had a contract with all current participants in the Florida Retirement System and could not just take away benefits from participants in the plan.
The Florida Retirement System (FRS) has been shown to be one of the most actuarially sound state retirement systems in the country. The money derived from the 3-percent tax is not needed to shore up the strength of the system, but was used by the governor and legislative leadership to make up a budget shortfall on the backs of teachers, law-enforcement officers, firefighters, nurses and other state workers. And it came at the same time the governor and legislative leaders reduced the government’s contribution to the retirement system by more than 3 percent and lowered taxes for wealthy corporations.
The Florida Retirement System (FRS) pension plan gained $19 billion in the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2012. The 22-percent gain is the biggest in 25 years, reports the State Board of Administration, and larger than the 14-percent gain from last year. The total value of the pension plan has soared to $128.4 billion. Does that sound like a pension system in financial trouble?
The 3 percent mandate is essentially an income tax levied only on state workers belonging to the Florida Retirement System. For teachers and other public school employees, it is a salary cut that’s compounded by years of budget cuts, layoffs, increasing healthcare premiums and five years without a raise. The stark budget cuts pushed by Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature only deepened those losses. The additional loss of 3 percent of their salary is an insult to hard working Floridians who have dedicated their lives to state employment.
The leaders in the Legislature chose this irresponsible, reckless and unconstitutional way of balancing the state budget instead of properly addressing the shortfall they created. Over the past decade, the Legislature has chosen to provide tax giveaways to investors and corporations that have accumulated to billions and billions of dollars. If those tax breaks had not been enacted, there would have been no budget shortfall.
In fact, the Legislature approved further tax breaks for corporations without any public debate during the final hours of 2011 legislative session, while they cut the salaries of hard-working families and enacted severe budget cuts on our public schools. Those tax breaks continued during the 2012 legislative session.
Legislative leaders have a number of avenues available to address any state budget shortfall, including closing sales-tax loopholes, aggressively collecting sales tax on Internet sales, or repealing the tax giveaways for investors and corporations. Those tax giveaways were widely touted as ways to create jobs and grow the state’s economy, but after billions and billions of dollars’ worth of tax giveaways over the past 14 years under Republican leadership, Florida has one of the highest unemployment rates, and its economy is one of the weakest in the nation.
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