Gov. Bobby Jindal (Gage Skidmore)
The great thing about being a Republican governor is that when you go after public workers, you can exempt yourself from the pain. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is proposing just that—he's pushing legislation that would make public workers pay more toward their pensions, but the governor, statewide officials, judges, and some legislators would be exempted from it. Jindal's argument is that he and the other officials who wouldn't face higher pension costs already pay a slightly higher percentage of their salaries toward their pensions than do public employees. The thing is:
While elected officials pay a higher contribution rate today, state law also give them a higher 3.5 percent accrual — the rate at which they earn benefits — compared with employees’ 2.5 percent and they also can retire earlier.
But under Jindal's proposal, he and a few other officials would keep their current contribution rate, their current accrual rate, and their current retirement age, while the contribution rate for teachers and custodians and secretaries would go up.
The increased pension contributions from your average state worker are, Jindal claims, necessary because Lousiana has $6.45 billion in unfunded liability. But:
Most of the $6.45 billion is attributable to promises made decades ago by past governors and Legislatures that went unfunded.
We've seen this story in several other states. Public workers take lower pay during their working years in exchange for promised stability and retirement security. Year in, year out, they pay their share of their income into their pension fund while the state neglects to put in its share. Then, years later, all those missed payments by the state add up and the answer the governor comes up with is to make the workers pay what the state's past obligations. And he exempts himself.