Report Inappropriate Comments

Lets not forget that the city workers also received a non contractual $1000 bonus this year. In addition, they were allowed to attend "health care clinics" during working hours, get blood pressure checks etc.. for doing so they were paid $150 and were able to earn up to $900. Just another perk. Also in the last 3 year contract that ended in 2012, a portion of the windfall of tax surplus went back to the unions to "make them whole" as is stated in the contract. One could call it deferred compensation. So in fact the concessions, or at least a substantial portion of them were in fact paid back.

The problem is that the pensions are structured as defined benefit programs. Which means that the pension benefit is not tied to the market gains or losses. That every person is guaranteed for example, Chief Sullivan, Mark Carrullo, Oscar Shelton, 80% of their salary. The employee has no personal involvement in the investing of the funds that they contribute or the management of it either. If the stock market crashes, there is no effect on the individuals retirement, however, the people that pay the difference are the taxpayer.

In private business, the company in some cases matches your contribution 3 - 5%. It is incumbent upon the worker to be diligent and manage his or her own retirement. If they invest poorly, they pay for it, not someone else. The workers can continue to point the finger at fault, disrespect the people that understand the inevitable outcome, but the fact of the matter is that ALL defined benefit pension programs across the country are at risk.

The point that none of the workers seem to understand is simple. You cannot argue that one particular fund is doing OK and ignore the others. When you combine the debt and unfunded liabilities, the simple fact is that the tax base cannot support the continued required funding to grow the assets and decrease the liabilities. The actuaries own documents of the amortization schedule shows exactly that. So you can ignore it and "hope to get yours", or begin the dialogue to fix the system.

Just remember one thing everyone, no matter what you think of anyone in particular or their personal opinion, mathematics do not lie, republicans and democrats however, do in fact lie.