For nearly 30 years, he was a police officer in the city of Vallejo […] He was able to retire at 50 with a pension and family health insurance benefits worth a total of a little over $180,000 a year.
Cop retires at 50 with a pension worth millions.
He’s not working, but making an income that is easily in the top 5% of the nation.
(BTW: Who was saying up-thread that a police officer retiring at 50 was “bullshit?”)
Vallejo’s financial situation is desperate, city services were cut by 40%, city is still on verge of bankruptcy. Cost of pensions alone is 30% and rising – yes, thirty percent of the budget pays for people who aren’t even working for the city.
Retired cop in PBS interview did have to take a cut. He now has to pay for his own health insurance. Income was reduced by $769/month, or about 5%.
Cop complains about it, as if it will be a struggle to live on $170K per year. Would rather current employees (and therefore the quality of current services) to take the hit:
“Where I think that they should’ve started to make changes is with the current employees. Those people still have an opportunity to plan for these things in the future.”
Yup, kick the can down the road, into the face of the next generation.[/quote]
More…
He’s not living on $180,000/year. That’s the TOTAL cost of his retirement benefits, including the family’s healthcare which probably accounts for at least $24,000 of that. Not saying he’s living in poverty, but let’s be honest about numbers. Let’s also not forget that he’s probably paying a much higher percentage of income tax than the vast majority of “taxpayers” who are complaining about public sector employees and their pensions.
And current employees are already taking the hit. It is primarily the current and future employees who will take the hits. The only possible way for current retirees to take some kind of a hit is in retiree healthcare because, in most cases, that is not a legally protected benefit. It can be used as a negotiation tool to extract other concessions from current retirees.
Also, the almost 26% (not 30%) of the budget going toward pensions is NOT paying for “people who aren’t even working for the city.” Again, your ignorance and lack of knowledge about this topic rears its ugly head…not to mention your poor reading comprehension skills (again), as I’ve explained this to you multiple times over the years. The employer share of pension contributions is paid out as a percentage of their **current employees’** pay. The (almost) 26% number comes from the percentage of the budget that is going toward pension contributions for current employees. Vallejo does not cut retirement benefit checks to their retirees.
But, feel free to keep on “discrediting” me, troll.
