An Act to make the public pension system simpler and fairer, to provide better income security to lower wage state employees and to protect future taxpayers from unanticipated pension costs (HD 01392) Summary: This bill creates a new pension plan for new public employees designed to improve the income security of lower state employees by …
Government Reform
children and families, election laws, ethics rules, insider jobs, pensions & benefits, structure and operations, transparency
Case Law on Changes to Benefits
In discussing changes to public employee benefits, a critical question is which groups of employees they should be applied to. There is no legal or moral limit to changes for new employees. It would be both illegal and immoral in most instances to make big changes to benefits of those already retired. For the cases …
A “contrary” view on the pension fund problems
Via Brad Delong‘s blog: http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/the-origins-and-severity-of-the-public-pension-crisis It argues, roughly, that the current shortfall is attributable to the recent stock market plunge, that pension funds, because of their size and long-term outlook, need not and should not invest like individuals, and that the size of the shortfalls, as a share of future state receipts, is not that alarming. …
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Move probation to the executive branch?
While the problem of patronage in probation may have been substantially addressed by changing leadership, it still may make sense to reorganize the system.
Resources on retiree health benefits
Key resources on this issues include: Mass Taxpayers Foundations report on municipal liabilities. Pioneer Institute White Paper: The Elephant in the Room: Unfunded Public Employee Health Care Benefits and GASB 45. Actuarial Valuation Reports for the Commonwealth. Federal Reserve Bank overview brief..
Will grasps pensions-will “they” care?
Will Brownsberger’s recent posts and proposed ideas illustrate what a thoughtful legislators does; research, consult, publicly debate and propose. He is one of the good ones. While I would go in the direction of getting the state out of the retirement business, Will is attempting to lead reform that would reshape the pension system and …