The truth about public pensions
Pensions, which are so essential to retirement security, are being attacked as the cause of state and municipal budget shortfalls. Theseattacks come from radicals who want to dismantle public institutions, like pensions, that don't benefit greedy billionaires. Don't listen to them.
Listen, instead, to economist Dean Baker recently called out the Washington Post for making the nonsensical claim that state and local pensions have unfunded liabilities of $3.8 trillion. Baker notes the funds are basically okay:
Listen, instead, to economist Dean Baker recently called out the Washington Post for making the nonsensical claim that state and local pensions have unfunded liabilities of $3.8 trillion. Baker notes the funds are basically okay:
...the $3.8 trillion figure was an estimate of total liabilities, not unfunded liabilities. Since the pensions have $2.8 trillion in assets, their unfunded liabilities are just $1 trillion. Or, to put this in terms that may be understandable to Post readers, the unfunded liabilities are 0.22 percent of projected GDP over the next 30 years. And, as I noted in my earlier post, most state and local governments are already funding at levels that are consistent with making up this shortfall so there will no required tax increases or spending cuts to meet these future obligations.
It shouldn't be a surprise, then, when Brother Brian Aldes, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 320 in Minneapolis, brings us some good