Kentucky pensions possibly on the chopping block

I've been telling everyone that the pensions are getting cut. Trade unions, public pensions all going by by. They were scams to begin with. This is part of the reason why I'm not buying into the Carpenter's Unions promise of pensions in 25 years when I would want to be retiring. Give me the money, put it in my pocket and I'll buy physical assets that produce a value and physical gold.

Ky.gov

"There is no such thing as an insurmountable obstacle," said Gov. Bevin. "We, as a Commonwealth, have a moral and legal obligation to fulfill the promises that have been made to our public employees. This is not just about fixing our present underfunding problem. It is also about ensuring that we leave a better, financially stable Kentucky to our children.

$64+Billion
Unfunded Pension Liability
per consultants

$6+Billion
Unfunded Health Care Liability

$15,000
Liability for each Kentuckian

$7Billion
Negative cash flow from FY 2006 through FY 2016

These are some high numbers.

Source

Key points..

A raid on the Public Employee Health Insurance Fund Takes $310 million from this fund to be used to support state spending elsewhere The House had proposed taking $480 million, an amount that some warned was far too much and would result in much higher insurance premiums for teachers and public employees.

Tenured professors still could face ax The bill retains language that would let university administrators cut tenured professors if the action is part of a program elimination.

I'm not worried though. Everything is fine don't worry, keep buying houses in California for 780k 2 bedroom condo's.

So are you for and happy that the pensions of working people that paid into them are getting cut or mad about this?

originally posted by: toysforadults
I've been telling everyone that the pensions are getting cut. Trade unions, public pensions all going by by. They were scams to begin with. This is part of the reason why I'm not buying into the Carpenter's Unions promise of pensions in 25 years when I would want to be retiring. Give me the money, put it in my pocket and I'll buy physical assets that produce a value and physical gold.

Ky.gov

"There is no such thing as an insurmountable obstacle," said Gov. Bevin. "We, as a Commonwealth, have a moral and legal obligation to fulfill the promises that have been made to our public employees. This is not just about fixing our present underfunding problem. It is also about ensuring that we leave a better, financially stable Kentucky to our children.

$64+Billion
Unfunded Pension Liability
per consultants

$6+Billion
Unfunded Health Care Liability

$15,000
Liability for each Kentuckian

$7Billion
Negative cash flow from FY 2006 through FY 2016

These are some high numbers.

Source

Key points..

A raid on the Public Employee Health Insurance Fund Takes $310 million from this fund to be used to support state spending elsewhere The House had proposed taking $480 million, an amount that some warned was far too much and would result in much higher insurance premiums for teachers and public employees.

Tenured professors still could face ax The bill retains language that would let university administrators cut tenured professors if the action is part of a program elimination.

I'm not worried though. Everything is fine don't worry, keep buying houses in California for 780k 2 bedroom condo's.

Boy - you are confused.

Unions are the problem when PUBLIC pensions are being cut to balance tax breaks for the wealthiest. And by the way, the reason you didn't join a union?

You are seriously pissed at UNIONS for cutting PUBLIC employee pensions.

You don't get how the financial rape is accomplished. First - huge tax breaks (95% of which go to BIG business and only the richest individuals). Then the 'owner class' flunkies in government (bi-partisan for the most part) the budget the budget (while increasing spending for the profit of self-same Big business and only the richest) we have to cut people and services and benefits and pensions to everyone else.

The only possible way to hold the line is through collective (ohhhhh bad word) bargaining.

..... GSMFSP

a reply to: toysforadults

The fact that people can pay into a pension for their entire career, only for deceptive and greedy governments to yank it before they can even receive it is appalling and criminal.

As it turns out though, there is no state or local government that is ACTUALLY broke. I would advise everyone to look into and research the CAFR scams. It stands for Comprehensive Annual Finance Report. It reveals that money that is allocated for a future project is actually invested in Wall Street and other places, with the astronomical profits made being stored in offshore accounts.
There is even a law making it illegal for this money to be used to balance the state or city budget, when they easily could.

This link shows some previous lawsuits involving these scams, as well as links to good info on how it works.

nowisthetimeus.wordpress.com...

The depths of this depravity is unfathomable.

Pensions were never sustainable and are antiquated. They need to convert the programs to 401k accounts. At this point just rip off the band-aid.

Bevin has some serious balls actually dealing with this problem.

a reply to: FyreByrd

not sure what you're talking about but the tax payers are funding these pension scams that's what they are

they could just put the money in your pocket and you could invest yourself but god forbid you have to actually do something with your own money

originally posted by: Metallicus
Pensions were never sustainable and are antiquated. They need to convert the programs to 401k accounts. At this point just rip off the band-aid.

Bevin has some serious balls actually dealing with this problem.

that's actually a good thing for the tax payers of Kentucky, this will be just 1 of many domino's to fall

it's going to put funds back where they belong, in our infrastructure and hopefully schools, not looking that way in Kentucky though

knowing our government the money will just squandered anyway but it's a step in the right direction

Not Ky. but it's no wonder pensions are going bust. The Parkland school resource officer is only knocking down $8,700.00 a month in retirement pension. Governments have been giving away the farm for years now without any regard to the long term ramifications of their unrealistic financial policies. The guy knocked down $101,000 his last year including overtime and enjoys a lucrative pension now. Stupid politicians!

www.cnn.com...
Parkland school resource officer decried as coward gets princely pension of $8,702 a month

a reply to: ZombieZygote

The fact that people can pay into a pension for their entire career, only for deceptive and greedy governments to yank it before they can even receive it is appalling and criminal.

why are 18 year old students alleged to be responsible enough to know that they are getting sold a false bill of goods but you're not responsible enough to do the math on your pension to know it's not going to work?

who gives up their power ($$) to the state so they don't have to actively invest themselves? why?

I would much rather you put that money in my pocket and let me determine my own future

a reply to: toysforadults

not sure what you're talking about but the tax payers are funding these pension scams that's what they are they could just put the money in your pocket and you could invest yourself but god forbid you have to actually do something with your own money

You have no idea what a Union is about do you.

a reply to: tinner07

a union is about giving up your personal power and money for security rather than leveraging your position and skill for better pay/ opportunities

that's how I see it, but go on ahead and give me a run down about how they gave us the 8 hour work day blah blah blah

let's hear it

originally posted by: toysforadults
a reply to: ZombieZygote

The fact that people can pay into a pension for their entire career, only for deceptive and greedy governments to yank it before they can even receive it is appalling and criminal.

why are 18 year old students alleged to be responsible enough to know that they are getting sold a false bill of goods but you're not responsible enough to do the math on your pension to know it's not going to work?

who gives up their power ($$) to the state so they don't have to actively invest themselves? why?

I would much rather you put that money in my pocket and let me determine my own future

I agree with you about putting it in your own pocket and being in charge of investing for your future.
But that doesn't mean that it is okay or right for governments to steal your money, crying that they are broke and need it for god knows what, when in fact they have been investing it this entire time and keeping the crazy profits in offshore accounts.

Every single person needs to know what is happening.

a reply to: ZombieZygote

you are right, the government is stealing money that I get paid for producing an actual product that's marketable and giving it to these people in the form of pensions

Cities and states have been kicking the can down the road for years and now they are going to have to figure it out.
These pensions have been getting farther behind for far to long.


The problem with government pensions is that the employee doesn't create any revenue, only expense.
Their pensions must come from the coffers.

a reply to: Bluntone22

as a tax payer who actually produces a marketable product it's not my responsibility to pay you 100k a year with full benefits to sit on your ass at home for providing a public service

SERVICE

service being the keyword here

Hey toys, if you have some time, put together some numbers to show people how ridiculous these pensions are. Show them how the pensioners only pay in about 5-7% of the total promises made. That they can contribute 10-20 thousand throughout 30-40 years of working but receive 100-200 thousand in payouts if they live beyond 10 years after retirement.

The math just dosen't work out. It isn't about promises, it is about reality. If people really were to get mad, would they even know who to take their anger out on? Would they understand what a massive ponzi scheme these plans are?

Edit to add:
What would be fair is to require these pensioners to live in the communities that are paying for their lifestyle. Move out of the municipality and break contract. It would only be fair.

a reply to: ClovenSky

I could do that but I'm really tired, I've been putting off working on my latest Cisco cert after working 8 hours today on...



so that government employees can feel entitled to the money I make and steal it from my paycheck while they sit on their ass doing nothing

a reply to: toysforadults

Cisco...excellent dude

Come join my world in telecommunications. Job security baby.

a reply to: ClovenSky

better believe it, soon as I finish the CCNA I cannot wait to get out of construction

Look up Lawrence Penn of the Camelot Group. This is probably the tip of the iceberg in mismanagement of pension funds...this one in Kentucky. But, a good question to ask all across the country is: Who is managing our public pension funds?

Here's a morsel about him from 2014:

Mr. Penn raised about $120 million starting in 2010 from investors including the $15 billion Kentucky Retirement Systems, Frankfort, and transferred assets to a shell company the two men controlled called Ssecurion, under the premise the money was payment to Mr. Ewers for due diligence services, prosecutors said.

www.pionline.com...

Here is a picture of him in cuffs:

nypost.com...

Here is additional info:

kycir.org...