[quote=harvey]Tony “Mack” Rodriguez, a retired sergeant on the Desert Hot Springs police force describes how the situation came about. “The union told us that the revenue estimates were unrealistic, and we should do something about it. We were talking about deferring some raises, or maybe cutting back overtime. We had a plan.”
But Rodriguez said the union proposal never made through because of interference from a number of investment firms. “Our plan never got too far. These Wall Street guys came in and made us take raises. They increased the pension payouts and lowered the retirement age. They were ruthless, there was no stopping them.”
Now Rodriguez , 51, is not working but is forced to receive 90% of his prior salary of $132.000. “I’m stuck with these paychecks, for life” he said. “I could live till I’m eighty-five, and I’ll have to deal with this for the next thirty years.”
The situation has required him to fill his garage with motorsport vehicles he rarely uses. He recently was forced to purchase a fifty foot RV. “We had to buy a bigger house because of all this stuff” lamented Rodriguez. “I even had to get a disability tax break because the Wall Street guy told me that my knee hurts.”[/quote]
FYI, it was indeed the Wall Street/financial geniuses who convinced public leaders that they could enhance pension benefits during the internet/stock market bubble *at no additional cost.* While the boots-on-the-ground workers certainly didn’t oppose the benefit enhancements (would you?), the unions more certainly DID warn public agencies that reducing the pension contributions to zero during the bubble years would result in underfunded pensions down the road when the market corrected. They were right.
And why didn’t govt leaders want to fund the pensions during the good times? They did it so that they could take care of other stakeholders, like public contractors (a HUGE problem in local governments) and advocacy groups who wanted their various pet projects completed since all of that “extra money” was just sitting around doing nothing. This is why it’s almost impossible for government leaders to save for a rainy day: every stakeholder is watching the funds and will demand, on a daily basis, that the money be spent on their personal projects and ideas.
