Also on the union front…Rhode Island

We have heard the news from Wisconsin and Ohio in recent months about the attempts of those states to rein in the enormous obligations of their state’s pension fund liabilities and their health care liabilities.  Of course, both of those states are controlled by the evil Republicans, who presumably want dirty air, dirty water, and dirty whatever else evil one can imagine.  But, what about a Blue State?

That Blue State would be Rhode Island

Rhode Island is going broke, if it isn’t already.  So, earlier this year, Independent Governor Lincoln Chafee asked 12 residents to be on a commission to make recommendations as to how to fix the problem…a $7 billion unfunded pension liability.  We had, and still do, similar fiscal problems in this country as a whole, so, last year, President Obama appointed the Simpson-Boles commission to figure out a solution.

From that common point, the responses to the recommendations diverge.

President Obama pretended as if Simpson-Boles didn’t exist.  When that commission released its recommendations, did anyone hear a peep from our President?

Not so in Rhode Island.

The commission knew that changing the benefits for “new hires” would not come close to solving the problem.  So, they recommended a suspension of the annual 3% cost of living increase until the pension fund was solvent, raising the retirement age for most workers from 62 to 67, and puting all workers into a “hybrid pension plan that includes a modest annuity and a defined-contribution component”.

[The commission] estimate[s] their plan will lop $3 billion off the state’s unfunded liability and cut its pension bill in half next year.

It should come as no surprise that the unions threw a fit and threatened to sue if the legislature adopted the recommendations.  The surprise though is that in spite of this, 77 of the state’s 94 Democrat legislators voted in favor of the commission’s recommendations.

I wonder if Governor Daniel Malloy (D. Ct.) would consider such a concept?

 

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SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

5 Comments

  1. Gary J on November 26, 2011 at 7:39 pm

    LOL SOS ! I wonder if Governor Daniel Malloy (D. Ct.) would consider such a concept? I would like some of the wine you had before writing that sentence .? You silly.



  2. johnboy111 on November 26, 2011 at 7:48 pm

    what do you think the “P” stands for in D.P.M????



  3. ricbee on November 27, 2011 at 12:58 am

    Malloy ain’t got enough sense,he’s ADD positive.



  4. JBS on November 27, 2011 at 8:32 am

    Malloy? Ha! He’ll never cross the CT state employees; he owes his job to them! The pension issue will be ignored and minimized until the next election.
    He is in bed with the unions so far that . . . let’s just say that he will do anything to get re-elected by the unions; it was the union members who made his election possible. They actively worked hard on his campaign. The very generous state employees’ contract was his payback to the unions for his election.
    There is a considerable dislike of Malloy among non-union CT citizens (a gross understatement). He is viewed as having made royalty out of the state employees and as having sold the state of CT into bondage to get elected. Many in the private sector would like to have the advantages the CT state employees now enjoy and have for some time.
    I only hope the Republicans make an issue out of Malloy’s actions in the next election. If they don’t, then shame on them and woe to us.



  5. Dimsdale on November 29, 2011 at 6:18 pm

    Union mouthpieces like Malloy never bite the hand that feeds them (usually because it is up their backs making said mouth move).



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