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Title of the article: Pensions Are Killing Higher Education
State government tax revenues now exceed pre-recession levels and spending in almost every budget category has grown since 2008. But not Higher Education, where states are still cutting back.
In a new report, we show just how far higher education has dropped down states' priority lists. Spending on hospitals, policing and public welfare are all up by at least 10 percent. The most notable increases are on public employee pensions, which grew the fastest in terms of total liabilities and expenditures. In short, pensions are crowding out higher education.
Something's gotta give to fund the pension increases -- the only question is what gets cut.
Quote:
"It is easier -- and more politically expedient -- to cut higher education than it is to cut other areas."
that's like saying having clean water is killing higher education...
the money for those things are unrelated outside of being tax funded, if you have an issue with pensions, then that's one issue. if you have an issue with higher education funding, that's separate. You can't say one is being funded in place of another.
I can always cut pensions, and use the tax money to build parking lots. What does higher education have to do with it? nothing
all I see from author is jealousy that he wasn't smart enough to work in a job that provides a pension/tuition assistance and now he wants other people to be miserable like him
I have never understood why corporations don't foot the bill for college education. They are the likely recipients of college educated workers yet place the funding burden on families.
America EFF yea.
that's like saying having clean water is killing higher education...
the money for those things are unrelated outside of being tax funded, if you have an issue with pensions, then that's one issue. if you have an issue with higher education funding, that's separate. You can't say one is being funded in place of another.
I can always cut pensions, and use the tax money to build parking lots. What does higher education have to do with it? nothing
all I see from author is jealousy that he wasn't smart enough to work in a job that provides a pension/tuition assistance and now he wants other people to be miserable like him
I work in the public sector and I assure you that the cost of pensions has skyrocketed to the point that it definitely is crowding out services. I'm sure it's the same for higher education as it is for any other government job. My employer now puts in over 66% of my salary just toward the pension and I put in over 15%....and the future liability is still only 56% funded--and this is after they reformed the pension plan several years ago. Where I work, the pensions consume 26% of the city's revenue. How can that not crowd out other services?
Title of the article: Pensions Are Killing Higher Education
State government tax revenues now exceed pre-recession levels and spending in almost every budget category has grown since 2008. But not Higher Education, where states are still cutting back.
In a new report, we show just how far higher education has dropped down states' priority lists. Spending on hospitals, policing and public welfare are all up by at least 10 percent. The most notable increases are on public employee pensions, which grew the fastest in terms of total liabilities and expenditures. In short, pensions are crowding out higher education.
Something's gotta give to fund the pension increases -- the only question is what gets cut.
Public employee unions = pensions cannot be cut = FAIL
that's like saying having clean water is killing higher education...
the money for those things are unrelated outside of being tax funded, if you have an issue with pensions, then that's one issue. if you have an issue with higher education funding, that's separate. You can't say one is being funded in place of another.
I can always cut pensions, and use the tax money to build parking lots. What does higher education have to do with it? nothing
all I see from author is jealousy that he wasn't smart enough to work in a job that provides a pension/tuition assistance and now he wants other people to be miserable like him
edit: maybe he prefers it if a company ran daily life? Samsung style in s korea?
I regard public employee pensions a lot like interest on government debt. It's an obligation that takes money off the top. If there's not enough money left for services after pension spending, services must be cut. It is VERY much that pensions are funded in place of any lower priority for which there are insufficient funds left.
In all honestly tho, I do believe that there are changes that need to be addressed in the funding or even to the providing. But, the present 401k style is also in need of major adjustment.
This problem is just an extension of the same issues that abound in healthcare insurance--- those that get theirs(health, pension, 401k etc) from a larger employer have a tremendous cost advantage over the small employer, or those who provide it for themselves.
The 401k provided by the small business I worked for, had a 1.5% per year management fee even before fund costs etc. But since that 1.5% went to John Hancock that was fine, screw the employee who paid the fee with lower returns and generally crappy funds.
Last edited by JIMANDTHOM; 06-03-2017 at 07:40 AM..
It's time to axe the pensions and replace them with a 401k type of account like the private sector has been doing for awhile now. I have heard of public pensions paying some workers more than what their salary was. No wonder everyone wants a government job.
This reminds me of the big shot at a certain bank, who when asked why the so many customers had ended up with accounts and investments they never wanted blamed it on the low level employees. All of the policies, procedures etc. that were instituted that forced the employees to 'produce' or be fired didn't matter. It was just those bad employees.
Same here.
Financial problems?
It must the fault of those greedy employees! We, the people who ran the place for decades can't possibly be at fault. The people who had the power to make decisions and change things could not possibly have erred. So now we have no choice but to take away the compensation we agreed on in order to save the institution from these bad employees.
Yea. Right.
The war on the working class continues.
Last edited by Rombus; 06-03-2017 at 10:01 AM..
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