Oh, and Happs, regarding the local gov’t workers with “lavish pensions” (as you call them), these pension formulas apply mostly to the worker bee with over 15 years seniority (who is probably not yet in a position to invest in rental/flipper property), the “soon-to-be-retired,” and the “already retired.”
The young gubment-worker-bees in family raising mode who would be shopping in the $300-$400K range for a principal residence often aren’t eligible for those pension formulas. In addition, it takes 8-11 years now to reach the top step in pay in a particular job classification instead of the 4.5 years it used to.
This was done to keep pay levels down (in the absence of a promotion) and thus have these ~newer hires’ eventual retirement formulas based upon lower annual earnings.
