Month: December 2015

Sweeney’s tweak of proposed constitutional amendment may make plan more viable politically, but GOP leaders say it would just result in higher taxes

By John Reitmeyer

A subtle change has been made to the original draft of a proposed constitutional amendment on public-employee pension funding that legislative leaders want to put before voters next year.

The difference isn’t a substantial one when it comes to the already ugly numbers for the grossly underfunded pension system, but it could play a big role in how the pension-funding issue plays out politically, both in the short-term during the push for approval of the ballot question and in the long-term as state policymakers would work to fund it.…

Every year we don’t properly fund the pension system, the future cost goes up exponentially

Four and a half years ago, the governor and the Legislature passed bipartisan legislation designed to fix the pension system for teachers and state employees, which had developed a $50 billion unfunded liability due to the failure of both Republican and Democratic administrations to make the required pension payments over the previous 14 years.…