Politics
Shift of State Workers’ Pension Plan Backed in House
Around the State
Subcommittee Chairman Jason Brodeur | Credit: myfloridahouse.gov
Subcommittee Chairman Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, called the proposal the “first steps to enact meaningful reforms to Florida’s public employee pension system.”
“Now is the time to act on this issue, so that we may find a solution in a thoughtful, deliberate and balanced way, before our state is put into a dire situation and struggling to meet pension obligations,” Brodeur stated in a release.
The proposed committee bill requires new public employees who have never participated in the Florida Retirement System to be enrolled in a defined contribution plan.
While the state’s pension plan is considered one of the top funded in the nation, Brodeur claims the bill will provide long-term “financial certainty for the state.”
Union representatives have expressed they are not in favor of wholesale rewriting of the pension rules, which include restrictions on how local government can use the insurance premium tax revenue they now collect.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
Comments (5)
And ditto for Social Security as well. According to a Februray 5, 2013 USA Today article, "Keep hands off benefit programs," states "Social Security has collected $15.5 trillion and only has spent $12.8 trillion over its lifetime. It is not contributing to the national debt." It hasn't caused this debt because it is prevented by law from borrowing.
You just can't leave these two very successful programs alone. With your ilk the sky is always falling. This is why you got your butts kicked in the last election. You've become the "Doomsday" Party. Get ready for another repeat in 2014.
influence in the past has caused bad FRS investments such as in Enron just before they collapsed and in mortgage backed securities with Lehman Bros.
"The now resigned Stipanovich made $1.5 billion in bad investments, $842 million of them purchased through Lehman Brothers. The pension fund now holds $756 million in worthless paper related to the housing market meltdown, almost 8% of its cash holdings. The state’s short-term investment fund is faced with similar losses. Jeb Bush and Lehman Brothers won’t be losing any sleep over it though because the vulnerability has been dumped on Florida’s 1.1 million current and retired state workers, hundreds of school districts and local governments, the state-created Citizens Property Insurance, and the state treasury."
Google Florida FRS Lehman bros and throw Bush in the mix.
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