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Or stop raiding pensions and other tax receipts to pay for other underfunded government obligations (resulting from inane tax cuts that only benefit the very we

by mjfern 8y ago

Or stop raiding pensions and other tax receipts to pay for other underfunded government obligations (resulting from inane tax cuts that only benefit the very wealthy)?

maxerickson 8y ago
What do you mean by raiding? Do you have a particular state in mind that diverted funds in a controversial way? (the report places much blame on aggressive assumptions about investment performance)
- westpfelia 8y ago
  Several times now various bills and projects have relied on withdrawing funds from social security/pension pools. On the promise that the money will be returned of coarse.
  - maxerickson 8y ago
    The Social Security Trust Fund owns an awful lot of US treasuries (almost $3 trillion), but I don't think that really meets the bar for "controversial" as treasuries are the only investment it is allowed to buy (by law). For states, I am interested in specific cases.
    - dashundchen 8y ago
      There are additional cases I can find, but a quick search turned this up about Kentucky doing this to the state employee health insurance fund for nearly a decade. I believe they have done this to the general pension fund as have other states. If a state is going to have pensions they need to be independently managed and firewalled from the hands of politicians. https://kypolicy.org/shifting-health-costs-employees-become-way-state-plugs-budget/ https://kypolicy.org/shifting-health-costs-employees-become-... >Kentucky has shifted more of the responsibility to pay for health benefits to public sector workers in recent years and then used the savings to help fill holes in the budget. Even after these transfers from the employees’ health plan, its fund balance is continuing to grow, making it a target in the new budget. Governor Bevin’s budget plan includes transferring $500 million out of the plan in 2018 into a new “permanent fund.” >Over a period of years, balances built up in the state’s plan as more was collected in employer and employee contributions than was paid out in claims. In recent years, the state began to transfer those monies to plug other holes in the budget. Kentucky transferred $50 million in 2009 and $93 million in 2015. For budget year 2016, the state will shift another $63.5 million from the plan to the state’s rainy day fund.
charleslmunger 8y ago
Typically pensions themselves are the largest underfunded government obligation - consider California, where Gray Davis passed a retroactive pension benefits increase with a reduction in pension funding. At the national level, the math is different because of the military, but state and municipal governments pay a ton of their budget to retirees. http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-pension-crisis-davis-deal/ http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-pension-crisis-davis-d...
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
gravis7777 8y ago
I'm not "insanely wealthy" and I am getting a benefit from the tax cuts, as are most people. Or we can get rid of other obligations like welfare to fund it as well - give money from the non-working (and in some cases arguably useless) to the working.
frockington 8y ago
I'm all for this. If we were to cut welfare benefits to fund state pensions, it could be sold as transferring wealth from those who don't work, to those who do which is much easier than hiking tazes

by mjfern 8y ago

Or stop raiding pensions and other tax receipts to pay for other underfunded government obligations (resulting from inane tax cuts that only benefit the very wealthy)?

maxerickson 8y ago

What do you mean by raiding? Do you have a particular state in mind that diverted funds in a controversial way? (the report places much blame on aggressive assumptions about investment performance)

westpfelia 8y ago
Several times now various bills and projects have relied on withdrawing funds from social security/pension pools. On the promise that the money will be returned of coarse.
- maxerickson 8y ago
  The Social Security Trust Fund owns an awful lot of US treasuries (almost $3 trillion), but I don't think that really meets the bar for "controversial" as treasuries are the only investment it is allowed to buy (by law). For states, I am interested in specific cases.
  - dashundchen 8y ago
    There are additional cases I can find, but a quick search turned this up about Kentucky doing this to the state employee health insurance fund for nearly a decade. I believe they have done this to the general pension fund as have other states. If a state is going to have pensions they need to be independently managed and firewalled from the hands of politicians. https://kypolicy.org/shifting-health-costs-employees-become-way-state-plugs-budget/ https://kypolicy.org/shifting-health-costs-employees-become-... >Kentucky has shifted more of the responsibility to pay for health benefits to public sector workers in recent years and then used the savings to help fill holes in the budget. Even after these transfers from the employees’ health plan, its fund balance is continuing to grow, making it a target in the new budget. Governor Bevin’s budget plan includes transferring $500 million out of the plan in 2018 into a new “permanent fund.” >Over a period of years, balances built up in the state’s plan as more was collected in employer and employee contributions than was paid out in claims. In recent years, the state began to transfer those monies to plug other holes in the budget. Kentucky transferred $50 million in 2009 and $93 million in 2015. For budget year 2016, the state will shift another $63.5 million from the plan to the state’s rainy day fund.

charleslmunger 8y ago

Typically pensions themselves are the largest underfunded government obligation - consider California, where Gray Davis passed a retroactive pension benefits increase with a reduction in pension funding. At the national level, the math is different because of the military, but state and municipal governments pay a ton of their budget to retirees. http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-pension-crisis-davis-deal/ http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-pension-crisis-davis-d...

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

gravis7777 8y ago

I'm not "insanely wealthy" and I am getting a benefit from the tax cuts, as are most people. Or we can get rid of other obligations like welfare to fund it as well - give money from the non-working (and in some cases arguably useless) to the working.

frockington 8y ago

I'm all for this. If we were to cut welfare benefits to fund state pensions, it could be sold as transferring wealth from those who don't work, to those who do which is much easier than hiking tazes