So then the age 60 threshold is irrelevant if there is 35 years of service.
Right...which unless you graduated before you turned 21 would put you at a minimum of 56 to retire without penalty and receive your full pension, and from what I'm reading the maximum benefit one can receive is 75% of their salary. I hear stories like this a lot..."I know a teacher retiring with a 100K pension"...but I'm just not sure, looking at the laws set forth, how it can exactly happen.
I know teachers in our system that are 19 years old. Not sure their academic credentials or if/when they graduated but they are there.
Right...which unless you graduated before you turned 21 would put you at a minimum of 56 to retire without penalty and receive your full pension, and from what I'm reading the maximum benefit one can receive is 75% of their salary. I hear stories like this a lot..."I know a teacher retiring with a 100K pension"...but I'm just not sure, looking at the laws set forth, how it can exactly happen.
I know teachers in our system that are 19 years old. Not sure their academic credentials or if/when they graduated but they are there.
You have teachers that are 19 years old? Or teachers aides? I don't see how one can be a teacher if they haven't fulfilled the requisite course requirements for that subject in college...but perhaps thats why Texas is 43rd in education? LOL...sorry...couldn't resist! Maybe we just have different standards up here in Jersey.
We all have a common adversary no matter what. Ultimately, what the hell do I care what someone gets for a pension and when they get it. I don't. I really and truly don't. If you want to and can retire at 40, good for you and I'm genuinely happy for you. However, as of right now, the same politicians that stole from your pension are now looking at me to fix it for them by raising the state income tax by what, 67%. What happened to the whole fairness for THAT. Yet I have to pay out more so a state employees pension can be fixed and teachers or engineers or whomever can retire so early, yet that's money that ironically, will most likely have to come out of the money that I put away for MY retirement, which then means I have to wait even longer, but as long as the teacher gets to retire early, that's all fair. WTF. To be honest, my 401K isn't guaranteed either. Does ANYONE in the private sector even HAVE pensions anymore? I know big manufacturers like Cat used to have pensions, but they don't anymore. Anyone want to guess why? Unsustainable.
So, the bottom line, the politicians over the last 30 years have been screwing the employees by not funding and in fact, raiding the pension funds which isn't fair and should be illegal. Now they are screwing the taxpayer to pay for it all when we had nothing to do with it and effects how WE plan to pay for OUR later years which isn't fair either. Anyone see the common bastards here?
The reality is, the employees will get theirs because the courts will make sure of it. The politicians will continue to get voted back in because that's what they do. 4DaBers and the rest of the private sector will get stuck with the tab again, but WE are the GREEDY ones. Might as well pay more in taxes while I'm paying so damn much for healthcare (which has gone up OVER 100% for me, with no health problems, over the past 4 years and deductibles 140%) while I'm at it. Just a word of advice for those that want to dream the American dream and start your own business, unless you're willing to absorb the cost of a gallon of Vaseline or KY every month, don't bother. Sorry if changing the rules doesn't seem fair for pensions, but the rules for me/us seem to change every damned year, so I guess I'm not showing a helluva lot of sympathy. It may not be fair, but frankly, I don't ever remember anyone ever telling me life was fair.
Wow, this thread has turned into quite the OT soapbox.
It's never the politicians fault. If people would just shut up and let them just take whatever they want, there would be no issues. I mean, WTH... that's what they became politicians for.... to line their pockets. Just let them do their job and shut up.
It's unbelievable! Then our illustrious governor gave the pension investment fund to his buddies to run and they somehow managed to LOSE MONEY in this market! Of course they didn't reduce their fees any...what a friggen racket!
It's no shock to anyone that the two States we are referring to (Illinois and Jersey) are the two most politically corrupt States in the Union.
So then the age 60 threshold is irrelevant if there is 35 years of service.
Right...which unless you graduated before you turned 21 would put you at a minimum of 56 to retire without penalty and receive your full pension, and from what I'm reading the maximum benefit one can receive is 75% of their salary. I hear stories like this a lot..."I know a teacher retiring with a 100K pension"...but I'm just not sure, looking at the laws set forth, how it can exactly happen.
Here is a story about one of our Local State Reps that recently retired as a rural small town school teacher. As the story reports, she doesn't get her full 75%, but she was able to apply 340 days of unused sick days to the end of her time. As is the norm here in Illinois, most school district give teachers an above average bump in pay in their last 4 years to maximize their average salary for retirement. Even without maxing at 75%, her pension is still over $60,000 a year at age 56. Pretty nice for Central Illinois COL. if she lives to say 78, her pension will cost the system almost $1.5 million. I'm pretty sure her contributions were not even close to 5%. Ultimately, fair or not, at some point people have to look at this as think something is a little haywire.
We all have a common adversary no matter what. Ultimately, what the hell do I care what someone gets for a pension and when they get it. I don't. I really and truly don't. If you want to and can retire at 40, good for you and I'm genuinely happy for you. However, as of right now, the same politicians that stole from your pension are now looking at me to fix it for them by raising the state income tax by what, 67%. What happened to the whole fairness for THAT. Yet I have to pay out more so a state employees pension can be fixed and teachers or engineers or whomever can retire so early, yet that's money that ironically, will most likely have to come out of the money that I put away for MY retirement, which then means I have to wait even longer, but as long as the teacher gets to retire early, that's all fair. WTF. To be honest, my 401K isn't guaranteed either. Does ANYONE in the private sector even HAVE pensions anymore? I know big manufacturers like Cat used to have pensions, but they don't anymore. Anyone want to guess why? Unsustainable.
So, the bottom line, the politicians over the last 30 years have been screwing the employees by not funding and in fact, raiding the pension funds which isn't fair and should be illegal. Now they are screwing the taxpayer to pay for it all when we had nothing to do with it and effects how WE plan to pay for OUR later years which isn't fair either. Anyone see the common bastards here?
The reality is, the employees will get theirs because the courts will make sure of it. The politicians will continue to get voted back in because that's what they do. 4DaBers and the rest of the private sector will get stuck with the tab again, but WE are the GREEDY ones. Might as well pay more in taxes while I'm paying so damn much for healthcare (which has gone up OVER 100% for me, with no health problems, over the past 4 years and deductibles 140%) while I'm at it. Just a word of advice for those that want to dream the American dream and start your own business, unless you're willing to absorb the cost of a gallon of Vaseline or KY every month, don't bother. Sorry if changing the rules doesn't seem fair for pensions, but the rules for me/us seem to change every damned year, so I guess I'm not showing a helluva lot of sympathy. It may not be fair, but frankly, I don't ever remember anyone ever telling me life was fair.
Wow, this thread has turned into quite the OT soapbox.
The solution is to have pension reform that affects new employees moving forward. Let them know up front the job benefits so they can decide if they want to work for the pay and benefits for the new job. Then fund whatever pension plan you do offer going forward. I don't see that as a problem. People will be willing to take the jobs even if the retirement age is older than what it is now. The State will save money. My only points are:
1. Whatever you come up with as a new retirement plan - honor it. 2. Then fund that plan so we don't get into financial crisis.
I know teachers in our system that are 19 years old. Not sure their academic credentials or if/when they graduated but they are there.
You have teachers that are 19 years old? Or teachers aides? I don't see how one can be a teacher if they haven't fulfilled the requisite course requirements for that subject in college...but perhaps thats why Texas is 43rd in education? LOL...sorry...couldn't resist! Maybe we just have different standards up here in Jersey.
I'm originally from IL, but yeah..... here football is what counts in school
They are trying to recruit Fox to lead the Texas school systems. If they could snag him, I bet we could get to the bottom 3
Which funds did they rob JABF? My wife has a retirement in IL and this concerns me.
The only Illinois pension fund that they didn't do this to was the IMRF (Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund). I believe this covers some teachers and law enforcement. The IMRF was never robbed. The state did pay their fair share into that fund and it is now VERY healthy and fully-funded. But this was how ALL of the retirement pension funds were supposed to be administered. But in those other funds the state just quit paying into the other funds. It left them underfunded. The strength of pension funds is through fully funding them and the money grows over the many years so that when workers retire, the funds are there to pay out. But when the politicians began under-funding (not paying into the plans each year) they just kicked the can down the road to the taxpayers, thinking they could "make up" the money they failed to put into these plans. But over years and years of underfunding, you reach a point where it is too late. The pension funds were so underfunded that you couldn't make up the difference without bankrupting the state.
The politicians took the money to spend on their pet projects elsewhere, because they chose not to raise taxes. Instead it's like they embezzled the money to do what they wanted without doing it the right way - getting the revenues to pay for their pet programs.
Now the chickens have come home to roost. The money isn't there to pay for employees retirements. It was a very cruel and heartless thing these politicians did. Of course this began years ago. To late to fix the funds now without putting backbreaking tax on the taxpayers.
People are still getting pensions, as far as I know, (for the present) - but this is NOT sustainable. It is not fixable. The damage has been done.
I'm certainly no expert on all of this. My pension is the IMRF, so I'm blessed to be in the only Illinois pension fund that wasn't robbed. But that doesn't make me feel any less badly for the poor working people in the other funds. I feel pretty sad for them. I should add one last point here. Many people (me included) stuck with lower-paying jobs all of our adult lives due to the promise of these pensions. We were promised these pensions, and we paid into them weekly - and this made it okay for us to live on lower salaries than others in the private sector. We were willing to work for less with the promise of a retirement pension. Mine is very (very) modest. I still work full-time at my age because I couldn't live on my pension alone. But at least I have it to help with living expenses. I will probably work a job until I die though I hope to cut back on my hours at some point if financially possible.
I know just what you mean and agree with what your saying, and the NFL and the Players Union isn't any better. For those that don't know I am dying from ALS for which there is no cure, the NFL and Player Union recognizes the correlation between my days playing in the NFL and ALS and NFL works hard to help those players diagnosed with the disease who played during I believe the wording modern football contracts. Which means players from my era don't count, we're too old to count. Which is total BS my family and I could use any and all help. I have more money then most because I got lucky and married the greatest woman in the world bar none, she took control on my money long from day one and didn't let me waste my money away like so many NFL players from my era did. But my handicap van and it isn't anything great cost us almost $77,000 and to adapt our home for my powerchair (another $8,500) cost us almost $100,000 plus I have to pay caregivers to help me do the simple things in life, 12 to 18 hours a day. Before someone ask my wife not young and my kids have their own families to take care of, oh and at least one of my children or grandchildren are here every weekend to help my wife and me. If it wasn't for my family, let just say I would be here or anywhere to post this.
Right...which unless you graduated before you turned 21 would put you at a minimum of 56 to retire without penalty and receive your full pension, and from what I'm reading the maximum benefit one can receive is 75% of their salary. I hear stories like this a lot..."I know a teacher retiring with a 100K pension"...but I'm just not sure, looking at the laws set forth, how it can exactly happen.
Here is a story about one of our Local State Reps that recently retired as a rural small town school teacher. As the story reports, she doesn't get her full 75%, but she was able to apply 340 days of unused sick days to the end of her time. As is the norm here in Illinois, most school district give teachers an above average bump in pay in their last 4 years to maximize their average salary for retirement. Even without maxing at 75%, her pension is still over $60,000 a year at age 56. Pretty nice for Central Illinois COL. if she lives to say 78, her pension will cost the system almost $1.5 million. I'm pretty sure her contributions were not even close to 5%. Ultimately, fair or not, at some point people have to look at this as think something is a little haywire.
Yeah in Jersey you are maxed out on sick time pay out at 10K, and no district would allow you apply 340 sick days without a doctors note of some sort. And contracts have steps going from BA to MA plus 30 credits. If you don't get two masters you leave a ton of money on the table. What is the top of the guide in Illinois?
Right...which unless you graduated before you turned 21 would put you at a minimum of 56 to retire without penalty and receive your full pension, and from what I'm reading the maximum benefit one can receive is 75% of their salary. I hear stories like this a lot..."I know a teacher retiring with a 100K pension"...but I'm just not sure, looking at the laws set forth, how it can exactly happen.
Here is a story about one of our Local State Reps that recently retired as a rural small town school teacher. As the story reports, she doesn't get her full 75%, but she was able to apply 340 days of unused sick days to the end of her time. As is the norm here in Illinois, most school district give teachers an above average bump in pay in their last 4 years to maximize their average salary for retirement. Even without maxing at 75%, her pension is still over $60,000 a year at age 56. Pretty nice for Central Illinois COL. if she lives to say 78, her pension will cost the system almost $1.5 million. I'm pretty sure her contributions were not even close to 5%. Ultimately, fair or not, at some point people have to look at this as think something is a little haywire.
When a teacher retires and makes $60k a year in her retirement years a report comes out (no doubt by corporate media) that they did the math and if she lives 20 years in retirement she will cost tax payers $1.2 million dollars (if they couldn't make 0.1% interest on the money over 20 years) people are outraged. Why is there not a similar level of outrage when a CEO gets a $30 million bonus in a single year?? I will never ever ever ever ever ever understand it. People are literally complaining about working class people and their pensions and how it will cost them because they work in the private sector and how much it will cost in taxes?? Yet amazingly there are people walking away with more than $250 million severance packages and pensions. Somehow people still have greater concern with someone who did more in their lifetime to shape peoples lives in a good way barely making a livable wage through their meager pension..working class people! Every single time I am