Wisconsin Pension Cuts Are Actually About Reducing Union 'Cash Wages': David Cay Johnston

[steve2470]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/25/wisconsin-protests-who-co_n_828164.html

Who really contributes to Wisconsin's public employees' pension funds?

On Friday morning, the Wisconsin state assembly passed a bill that would, as the Associated Press put it, "require public workers to contribute more to their pensions and health insurance and strip them of their right to collectively bargain benefits and work conditions."

But David Cay Johnston, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on inequities in the corporate tax code, says the AP's description of Walker's bill is critically misleading. The problem lies with the claim initiated by the Governor, that under the proposed plan state workers would "contribute more" to their pension plan. This distorts the issue at hand because, Johnston writes at Tax.com, it leads to a certain implicit impression:

"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.

How can that be? Because the "contributions" consist of money that employees chose to take as deferred wages -- as pensions when they retire -- rather than take immediately in cash. The same is true with the health care plan. If this were not so a serious crime would be taking place, the gift of public funds rather than payment for services.

[highplainsdem]

1. K&R

[ipfilter]

2. Every dollar that goes towards a pension

is a dollar that is not paid out as an hourly wage. That is how CBA's are negotiated. Every benefit is considered in the overall compensation.

[murielm99]

3. My daughter will make $300.00 less every month

is the repubs in Wisconsin get their way. She says that she has no future in Wisconsin if this passes. She will have to look for work elsewhere.

[liberal N proud]

4. It's even more than that

It will allow the corporations to strip everyone (not just union members) of everything the unions fought for.

[Historic NY]

5. If every employee took out their deferred compensation Walker would shit....

If every employee that could retire did and took their sick time & other compensation Walsker would shit...has anyone tallied just how much the state loses then. Of course the media hasn't mentioned that these people are not only employees but taxpayers, they seem to contribute more to their wages & benefits than most taxpayers.

[SoCalDem]

6. Stolen labor..that's all it is.

and that another reason why Gov Goofball wants collective bargaining to end, because more and more union members will start demanding it all upfront now.. or they should..

Why defer something, only to have it all stolen away later? The "crash of 08" taught lots of people how that works.. sock money away in 401ks for years, and then the fatcats crash the market & end up with it all...after they have been collecting mis-management fees all along and gambling with your money when YOU could not touch it, other than to move it from one ponzi scheme to another..(you could "touch it", but not without a hefty penalty, deducted by the IRS)

[Historic NY]

8. Exactly.....they could go the Jersey route, the government spent the money.

[TomClash]

7. The bitterest irony

is that they deferred the compensation as part of the collective bargaining process - and now they are taking both the deferred compensation and the right to collective bargaining. Then the deferred money they stole essentially goes to subsidize no-bid power plant contracts.

As shocking as the Shock Doctrine.