Tied to the teaching workforce is massive pension debt: Collectively, teacher pension debt accounts for $ 500 billion of
all state pension debt.
State pension debt is flexible, and legislators have a tendency to shirk their long - term pension funding responsibilities in favor of other, more immediate spending priorities.
In 2002,
the state pension debt burden per household was $ 7,600.
And that's just
state pension debt; that doesn't include local government pensions or health care debt.
State pension debts are promises to retirees, and it might be tempting for some state leaders to try to trim the debt by cutting those promises.
However, there are greater drivers of burgeoning
state pension debts, such as the state legislature's long history of underinvesting in the pension fund as well as increasing benefits during bull markets without ensuring long - term solvency.
Should federal funds designed to support the education of low - income students be diverted to paying down
state pension debts?
Not exact matches
Government has passed painful austerity measures — tax hikes and cuts to benefits, salaries and
pensions — to reduce
state debt and strengthen confidences in its finances.
And companies can't take on more
debt, nor can
states and cities because they're being badly squeezed by falling tax revenues and rising
pension plan shortfalls.
DEBT Pension Deficits: While Private plans have an estimated deficit of just $ 465 billion, Public plans of local,
state and the federal government in the US are estimated to have something like $ 1.6 trillion!
As if
states and municipalities didn't have enough to deal with concerning their own government
debt, they will eventually have to deal with a reality that will explode their budget deficits: the low rates of return from their
pension investments.
The fraud issue lies as far outside the scope of the financial committee meetings as does the question of how the economy should cope with its unpayably high mortgage,
state and local
debts in the face of its inadequately funded
pension obligations.
Cook County's crisis is no different from what Chicago, the
state and numerous localities in Illinois are experiencing — out - of - control
pension debt.
The volume of real estate
debt, auto
debt, student loans, bank
debt,
pension debts by municipalities and
states as well as private companies exceed their ability to pay.
But to the extent that it ignores the finger Lincoln points at the Civil War — to the extent that it forgets the decimation of a generation of young Americans at the beginnings of manhood; to the extent that it forgets the windrows of corpses at Shiloh, the odor of death in the Wilderness, the walking skeletons of Andersonville, 623,000 dead all told, not to mention the interminable list of those crippled, orphaned, and widowed whose
pensions became the single largest bill paid by the federal government for the following half - century; to the extent that it ignores how the war cost the United
States $ 6.6 billion, rocketed the national
debt from $ 65 million to $ 2.7 billion, retarded commodity growth for the next thirty years, and devalued its currency — then the call for reparations opens itself up to a charge of willful forgetfulness so massive that resentment, anger, and bitterness, rather than justice, will (I fear) be its real legacy.
«Other countries are not willing to lend to Greece» - note that most
state debt is owned by private entities (
pension funds, banks, even private individuals).
Moody's pointed to four
state budgets that have kept spending under a 2 percent year - over-year growth rate and a
pension system that helps mitigate high
debt burdens.
The validity of the public
debt of the United
States, authorized by law, including
debts incurred for payment of
pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.
Two of the reasons for the proliferation of the «Shadow Government» are so that the
State does not appear to be the entity that acquires additional
debt, and to provide
State pensions for people not in the classified Civil Service who theoretically, (although much now is very fixed, going back to Mario Cuomo and continued by Pataki, Spitzer and Paterson) must face non-partisan Merit and Fitness competition for appointments and promotions.
@DJClayworth «The validity of the public
debt of the United
States, authorized by law, including
debts incurred for payment of
pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.»
Senate Republican leader John McKinney of Fairfield said, «Paying off our
pension debt is a good thing, but doing so outside of the spending cap shows that Governor Malloy is still not serious about reducing unnecessary
state spending and, further, that he is not serious about
pension reform.
In February 2014, Sweeney responded to Governor Chris Christie's 2014 budget address and opposed any more new reforms to the
state's retirement system, despite a $ 52 billion public
pension debt.
On December 13, 2010, National Assembly representatives from the Fidesz — Christian Democratic People's Party governing alliance passed the
Pension Reform and Debt Reduction Fund Law that permanently transferred mandatory private pension - fund contributions to the state unless employees indicated by January 31, 2011 that they wished to continue making payments to the
Pension Reform and
Debt Reduction Fund Law that permanently transferred mandatory private
pension - fund contributions to the state unless employees indicated by January 31, 2011 that they wished to continue making payments to the
pension - fund contributions to the
state unless employees indicated by January 31, 2011 that they wished to continue making payments to the funds.
The comptroller is the sole trustee of a $ 184.5 billion
pension fund covering more than 1 million government workers and retirees, and oversees an office with more than 2,600 employees that audits
state and local governments, administers
state government's $ 15 billion payroll, and reviews contracts and issues
debt.
But here's why we can say givebacks are in play: With rising shortfalls forecast for the coming years, with little appetite at the Capitol for raising taxes again, with
debt and
pension costs rising, and with
state - financed, outside services such as group homes already squeezed, there are scant other places to turn.
He wants the money to go toward paying down the
state's
debt, especially the $ 74 billion unfunded liability from the
state's teacher
pension plan (CalSTRS).
If the United
States is ever to pay off its vast and rising public
debt, as well as the growing deficits in its teacher
pension accounts, it will have to fix not only the nation's schools but local ones, too.
When those assumptions are wrong or the
state doesn't save enough for the future, it turns into a
pension debt.
States have not paid for
pension costs on an honest accounting basis, and they have accrued billions of dollars in
pension debt that avoids so - called «balanced budget» requirements.
In early 2016, spurred by a seemingly perpetual bankruptcy crisis at Detroit Public Schools (DPS)-- by this point, counting unfunded
pension liabilities, the district was almost $ 1.7 billion in the red — the
state senate narrowly passed a bill that would bail out the district and split it into two separate entities: the old DPS, which would exist to collect taxes and pay down
debt, and a proposed new Detroit Education Commission (DEC) to oversee schooling in the city, including regulating the openings and closings of traditional public schools and charter schools.
In order to pay down the current
debt, the
state increased
pension contribution rates that are deducted from a teacher's paycheck.
If
state and local governments are required to pour money into
pension debts, that's money they won't have available to support other government services, including higher education.
However, half of all
state education departments report a PPE figure that leaves out major cost items such as buildings, interest on
debt, and
pensions, thereby significantly understating what is actually spent.
For every $ 100 paid in salary,
states and school districts are paying $ 12 toward
pension debts and only $ 5 in benefits for current teachers.
There is considerable and growing evidence that 1) at least half of teachers today will not qualify for even a minimum
state pension benefit; 2)
state pension funds now carry roughly $ 500 billion in
debt and are eating up larger and larger shares of teacher compensation; 3) most teachers would have a more valuable retirement if they participated in a traditional 401k plan; and, 4) today's teachers, to their own financial detriment, subsidize the
pension of currently retired teachers.
The specific solutions would vary by the
state, but the important thing would be finding a new source of revenue to pay off
pension debts.
Annual payments (adjusted for inflation) devoted to paying off the
state's
pension debt, however, more than doubled from $ 540 to $ 1,200 per student.
So, what are the choices
states face in dealing with those large
pension debts?
Annually,
states are contributing roughly $ 37 billion * a year just to pay off teacher
pension debts, and those
pension debts can't just be wished away.
Nationally, for every $ 1 that
states and schools are contributing to
pensions, 70 cents goes toward paying down
debt and only 30 cents goes toward actual teacher benefits.
This year, the union has added «Illinois Is Broke» to its blacklist because the group helped spread public awareness about the
state's
pension debt.
Because
state pension administrators have made insufficient contributions and unrealistic investment assumptions,
pension debt now consumes over a third of school payrolls.
For example, Governor Malloy's irresponsible borrowing policies mean that the
state MUST increase its
debt service payments by at least $ 672 million dollars over the next three years and mandatory payments to the
state employee and teacher
pension and healthcare funds will account for an additional $ 620 million.
For every dollar
states and local school districts are contributing to teacher
pension plans, an average of $.70 goes toward paying down
pension debt.
Its current
pension debt exceeds $ 21,100 per pupil throughout the
state.
State politicians created large
pension debts, and it's unfair to ask school districts, especially charter schools, to bear the budgetary burden of those costs.
Without
pension debts,
states could raise salaries enough that teachers wouldn't need to spend their free hours waitressing or driving for Uber.
We evaluated the
state pension systems in all 50
states and Washington, D.C. Overall, we found that
states have expensive,
debt - ridden retirement systems in which most teachers fail to qualify for a decent retirement benefit.
If we compare those numbers to the amount teachers report earning through side hustles, teachers in at least 47
states and Washington D.C. would benefit (these
states have at least some
pension debt that's costing teachers money) and of those, 26 (highlighted below) would out - earn their average side hustle.
The
state has $ 14 billion in
pension debt that eats up a lot of the
pension contributions made on behalf of teachers.