NCPERS News Clips

9/15/2009

When I'm Sixty-Four

The first link in today's installment of the News Clips is a typical example of pension envy, outrage at taxpayer "waste", half-truths and incomplete reporting. The good news is that blogger Adam Doster at Progress Illinois (link #2) does a pretty good job of refuting the notion that a government job will ensure one a "fat retirement."

• IL: Public pensions, fat retirements
  Want to retire with a fat pension? Get a government job in Illinois. Nearly 4,000 retired government workers have pensions that pay them at least $100,000 a year.
• IL: The Sun-Times Sensationalizes State Pensions
  In what they call a "a first-of-its-kind Sun-Times analysis," reporters Tim Novak, Art Golab, and Chris Fusco have unearthed some eye-opening statistics about the "17 largest retirement plans for government workers in Chicago, Cook County, and the state of Illinois."
• New president for the Vermont-NEA vows to focus on teacher retirement
  This summer, Martha Allen went from one of the state's smallest schools to a new post as president of the Vermont-NEA, the largest union in the state.
• VA: State might ask workers to contribute to their retirement
  Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's proposal to defer a quarterly payment into the pension plan for state workers next spring may be just the first step toward a shift that could require workers to contribute a portion of their paychecks toward their retirement.
• SD: Plan aims to rebuild retirement fund
  A program that allows some public employees to draw a regular paycheck at the same time they are receiving retirement benefits is under scrutiny as the state looks to stem losses in its retirement fund.
• KS governor: Pension problems may force changes
  Gov. Mark Parkinson said Thursday that funding problems for the state pension fund may force changes in its benefit plans.
• MA: North Andover Selectmen want Essex Regional Retirement funds moved to state plan
  The North Andover Board of Selectmen will send a letter to the Essex Regional Retirement Board recommending the retirement board move its assets--which include North Andover's pension funds--into the state's Pension Reserve Investment Trust, or PRIT.
• Judge Dismisses Citigroup Derivative Lawsuit Over ARS
  A U.S. judge has dismissed a derivative lawsuit against Citigroup Inc. (C), its executives and its directors over the bank's involvement in the auction-rate securities market.
• OH: Merrill Lynch settlement OK'd
  A $475 million settlement has been completed in a class-action lawsuit led by the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio against Merrill Lynch.