Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > New York > Long Island
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 05-23-2010, 06:47 PM
 
Location: Nassau, Long Island, NY
16,408 posts, read 33,195,343 times
Reputation: 7338

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fanofavatar1 View Post
Wrong. I'd say most of the so called "teacher bashers" are those in the private sector scraping by to live on Long Island and have seen:

1) their taxes triple over the last 12 years

2) their medical contributions increase to the point where they are paying most of their premium, and the only benefit the employer provides is a group rate discount

3) Their salaries stagnant for most of the last 10 years

4) A pay cut the last 3 years... that's IF they haven't already lost their jobs

5) The constant fear of losing their jobs

6) Their retirement accounts dwindle while their tax dollars go to funding the ever increasing pensions of the teachers and police

7) Teachers and police salaries increasing at a greater rate than private sector salaries

8) Teachers and police getting retiree healthcare, despite it's virtual eradication from the private sector


Complaining about taxes and the main drivers of the high taxes (teacher and police compensation) is not something done by "bashers". It's done by responsible Liers who realize the current situation mirrors what's going on in Greece and cannot be sustained.

And before some teacher chimes in about their salary freeze, keep in mind more budgets on LI failed than the number of districts where teachers accepted a freeze. LI teachers have greatly benefitted from the situation (I don't blame them) but any teacher to say pay freezes or cuts hurts the children is at best disingenuous and at worst, stupidity.
Great post! I tried to rep you on it but it said I have to spread it around!

 
Old 05-23-2010, 06:50 PM
 
Location: Nassau, Long Island, NY
16,408 posts, read 33,195,343 times
Reputation: 7338
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fastrudy View Post
You are guarenteed health benefits for life after retirement as early as 55
I retired at age 55 and the district secured my health benefits for 10 years in my buy out deal. I did not want to retire so early, but the district made me an offer thet I could not refuse. At age 65, health insurance is covered by Medicare, just like in the private sector.

Salaries are increasing exponentially from year to year

Demonstrably untrue. Salary increases are not exponential, that would be catastrophic. Even if they were (they are not) the district allows all of our benefits, hours, days worked, etc. So ranting on the teachers is sort of like a misplaced frustration. You seem to want to blame teachers for accepting packages negotiated by the district. Perhaps your frustrations should be vented to the district, and not the teachers. Just saying.
That may be your deal, but you did not retire from a LI school district.

Teachers on Medicare at age 65 simply does not happen on LI.

(If it does, then of course I am open to being corrected!)
 
Old 05-23-2010, 06:57 PM
 
Location: Nassau, Long Island, NY
16,408 posts, read 33,195,343 times
Reputation: 7338
Quote:
Originally Posted by AndreaII View Post
Just think of where teachers' salaries will be 5 - 10 years from now - some of them will be making around $200K+, the younger teachers will have much higher salaries than now and then base their pensions on that. Wow. Salaries are increasing exponentially from year to year. Meanwhile, the rest of us non-teachers will still be making salaries in the neighborhood of $60 - 80K if we're lucky and if there are jobs out there for us. And it will be the poor(er) taxpayer carrying these way overpaid and over-compensated teachers. Until us non-teachers are so poor that we can't carry them anymore.

Perhaps things will come to a head when most people won't be able to pay their RE taxes since the taxes will have to increase enormously in order to carry the teachers and their forever increasing salaries and pensions.

Eventually this teacher union pyramid scheme will have to come to an end one way or another.
The story is the public employees of New York State are killing the golden goose.

No more NYS "Pension Fund" and no more employee and dependent health insurance benefits AFTER RETIREMENT for NYS public employees. That's what the next governor has to work on.

For those of you who say it can't be done "because it's promised in the union contracts" ...

They can simply stop all the pensions of the NON-RETIRED right where they are NOW and whatever it's worth that is what they will get when they are retired PLUS they will get their own savings plus employer contributions in their 401k or equivalent (403b for teachers) that starts with the new contract.

A smaller and more manageable for the taxpayers "guaranteed" pension plus what they save themselves with employer contribution. It's possible. If you look at the low end of the employee pension scale for NYS employees you will see people with pensions as low as a couple of thousand per year, so they must have not been working for the State that long. What I am saying is just because there is a pension plan NOW does not mean it has to be carried on into eternity.

Frankly, NYS taxpayers cannot afford it. That was a perk of the golden baby boomer years.

Now, we better take a long hard look at Japan because that's where we are headed.

The expensive health insurance after retirement for employees and dependents should simply DISAPPEAR from all contracts because Medicare is available to all over 65.

Note I am not saying anything about:

1. taking away pensions or portions of pensions or benefits from current retirees

2. lowering any salaries

If we get rid of future after-retirement entitlements, we may not need to do anything like that.
 
Old 05-23-2010, 07:04 PM
 
852 posts, read 2,011,848 times
Reputation: 325
I'm forced to conclude that this entire anti-union argument, and the degree to which it is sustained, is just teabagger ranting.

I've made some good arguments here about GDP rising, overall wealth increasing, working class incomes DECLINING, and the foolishness of blaming teachers for being well-paid. No one rebuts it. It gets ignored - crowded out in a crossfire of hyperbole and feigned concern for working class folks.

These anti-union folks are shills for millionaires.
 
Old 05-23-2010, 07:09 PM
 
Location: Sarasota, FL
1,695 posts, read 3,031,526 times
Reputation: 1143
Quote:
Originally Posted by I_Love_LI_but View Post

If we get rid of future after-retirement entitlements, we may not need to do anything like that.
Can't believe I am saying this, but in this respect I do have to agree with you.
(Must have been that martini at dinner )

If that's what it takes, I can't see this as "teacher bashing." Unfortunately, many of the posts here wanting similar results are without a doubt bashing the teachers, 99% of whom are doing the best they can to educate our children.
 
Old 05-23-2010, 07:17 PM
 
2,851 posts, read 3,461,385 times
Reputation: 1200
Quote:
Originally Posted by DeadPool1998 View Post
I'm forced to conclude that this entire anti-union argument, and the degree to which it is sustained, is just teabagger ranting.

I've made some good arguments here about GDP rising, overall wealth increasing, working class incomes DECLINING, and the foolishness of blaming teachers for being well-paid. No one rebuts it. It gets ignored - crowded out in a crossfire of hyperbole and feigned concern for working class folks.

These anti-union folks are shills for millionaires.
Firstly, talking about sticking a scrotal sack into your mouth is something you can do on your own time please. I believe there are forum rules about doing that.

Secondly, inflation has gone up the whooping 23% in 10 years. Teachers making 6 figure salaries has tripled (+300%). So your math is wrong.

Third, we're not shilling for millionaires. We're stumping for those people who are sick of their taxes going up. If you think the teachers union and the fear mongering of the educational system saying "Well we can't have sports, art, or lunches if you don't vote up our 8% increase" isn't fear mongering and playing the general population for shills, your out of your mind.
 
Old 05-23-2010, 07:20 PM
 
Location: Nassau, Long Island, NY
16,408 posts, read 33,195,343 times
Reputation: 7338
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coachgns View Post
Can't believe I am saying this, but in this respect I do have to agree with you.
(Must have been that martini at dinner )

If that's what it takes, I can't see this as "teacher bashing." Unfortunately, many of the posts here wanting similar results are without a doubt bashing the teachers, 99% of whom are doing the best they can to educate our children.
I am a high real estate taxes basher.

I am very concerned with the financial health of NYS and Nassau County, which has announced dire news of its own.

I do not have any bashing stories to tell about LI teachers. (And if I did, I would tell them, as I love to complain!) When I went to school I had respect for all of my teachers as solid people. I was smart enough as a kid to KNOW if I had an idiot or slacker as a teacher! I don't think I did and as far as my family and extended family goes, nobody else has ever complained either. I don't hate teachers. I hate the unions running us into the ground for their own power trips. I hate the outdated system that is costing us more than we can afford. I hate high and always rising real estate property taxes. I just want some solutions to slow it down and get a better value for the taxpayers.
 
Old 05-23-2010, 07:24 PM
 
280 posts, read 246,090 times
Reputation: 27
Quote:
Originally Posted by SilverBulletZ06 View Post
Firstly, talking about sticking a scrotal sack into your mouth is something you can do on your own time please. I believe there are forum rules about doing that.

Secondly, inflation has gone up the whooping 23% in 10 years. Teachers making 6 figure salaries has tripled (+300%). So your math is wrong.

Third, we're not shilling for millionaires. We're stumping for those people who are sick of their taxes going up. If you think the teachers union and the fear mongering of the educational system saying "Well we can't have sports, art, or lunches if you don't vote up our 8% increase" isn't fear mongering and playing the general population for shills, your out of your mind.
Just ignore his posts. Apparently he doesn't see why the posts are ignored, but those of us not choking on the far left kool aid can figure out that the class warfare is overdone and totally not applicable in this argument.
 
Old 05-23-2010, 07:27 PM
 
280 posts, read 246,090 times
Reputation: 27
Quote:
Originally Posted by I_Love_LI_but View Post
That may be your deal, but you did not retire from a LI school district.

Teachers on Medicare at age 65 simply does not happen on LI.

(If it does, then of course I am open to being corrected!)
Correction for you: everyone (in this context) gets Medicare at age 65. Teachers (most of them on LI) get retiree health benefits for the years between retirement and 65, as well as "Medigap" insurance for when they turn 65 and until death, to over what Medicare doesn't or supplement Medicare's coverage. Either way, it's extremely expensive and virtually eliminated in the private sector.
 
Old 05-23-2010, 07:34 PM
 
Location: Nassau, Long Island, NY
16,408 posts, read 33,195,343 times
Reputation: 7338
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fanofavatar1 View Post
Correction for you: everyone (in this context) gets Medicare at age 65. Teachers (most of them on LI) get retiree health benefits for the years between retirement and 65, as well as "Medigap" insurance for when they turn 65 and until death, to over what Medicare doesn't or supplement Medicare's coverage. Either way, it's extremely expensive and virtually eliminated in the private sector.
I truly think there are still union contracts on Long Island that mandate retiree and dependent health and dental insurance that is separate from and not affiliated with Medicare at all. I will look at the contracts online and report what I find, but that will not be until tomorrow.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Closed Thread




Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > New York > Long Island
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top