They provided service in good faith and it's the State that is not honoring their obligation.
hiya Teppodama,
the state cannot meet its obligations because;
1) the state promised pensions, but did not raise enough revenue to back up those promises.
2) taxpayers want support their police and firefighters, on one hand, but on the other do not want taxes raised to point where these pension agreements can be fulfilled.
its a problem; Rhode Island already has really high property taxes.
3) lots and lots of these folks are marching into retirement at the same time. its them baby boomers, getting in line for their benefits - as they'll be doing for the next decade or so.
the greed of the public sector unions landed Rhode Island in this mess.
it starts in 1977, when
the General Assembly gave the city's unions a controlling number of seats on the city's Retirement Board.
in 1989, t
he board granted compounded cost-of-living adjustments of 5 and 6 percent for all present and future public safety retirees and 3 percent for non-uniformed workers.
this is why we cannot have nice things.
the union members should take a cut - unless the citizens of Rhode Island would rather see their school funding cut, medicaid cut, and their roads and bridges in a state of disrepair, just so the pensioners can make out great.
back in 2014, Providence had 37 retirees bringing in over 100K per year in pensions. over
eight thousand dollars per month, most of them firefighters.
that is crazy.
- IGIT
