Here's the only question on the test.....How much do taxpayers contribute to public employee pensions in Wisconsin? Take a guess...50%....30%....pick your number.
See how close you can come.
Let me give you one hint. I am reading an article from Forbes http://blogs.forbes.com/... written by Pulitzer Prize winning tax reporter, David Cay Johnston.
Here is one quote...this is your hint that it might not be as much as you thought.
Johnston goes on to point out that Governor Walker has gotten away with this false narrative because journalists have failed to look closely at how employee pension plans work and have simply accepted the Governor’s word for it.
Below the
for the answer.
The answer is ZERO. NOTHING, NO PERCENTAGE IS THE CORRECT ANSWER. (this is the point where everyone hits the link to find out if that could really be true)
Gov. Scott Walker says he wants state workers covered by collective bargaining agreements to “contribute more” to their pension and health insurance plans. Accepting Gov. Walker’ s assertions as fact, and failing to check, creates the impression that somehow the workers are getting something extra, a gift from taxpayers. They are not. Out of every dollar that funds Wisconsin’ s pension and health insurance plans for state workers, 100 cents comes from the state workers.
Check out section 13 of the Wisconsin Association of State Prosecutors collective bargaining agreement – “For the duration of this Agreement, the Employer will contribute on behalf of the employee five percent (5%) of the employee’s earnings paid by the State. ”
Get that?
The employee's money is being contributed by the state on behalf of the employee.
Since the article was published today, several commenters have said:
while it is true that it is state employees’ own money that funds the pension plan, when the pension plan comes up short it is up to the taxpayer to make up the difference
To which Mr. Johnston says:
The pension agreements are the result of collective bargaining. That means that the state has every opportunity to properly calculate the anticipated lifespan and then add on some margin for error. What’s more, the losses taken by the pension funds over the past few years can hardly be blamed on the employees.
Ah, so now he's at the heart of the matter. "The losses taken over the past few years", you know the ones, the ones created by our banking industry that we so graciously bailed out. That's what they want the public employees to pay for.
I must leave you now to go research "fiduciary responsibility
UPDATE: For one of the most uplifting diaries I've read in a very long time
go here http://www.dailykos.com/...