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1/29/2010
A first. Village limits pension contribution for employees
Tiny but very big news. The Village of Brown Deer (coincidentally, where I grew up!) north of Milwaukee
for the first time, limits the amount of tax money that will be paid toward employee pensions.
The contract with public works and some clerical employees is unusual in that most municipalities in southeastern Wisconsin pay all employee pension contributions and with no limit, Village Manager Russell Van Gompel said Thursday.
The provision in the AFSCME union contract, approved this week by the Village Board, is a "foot in the door" toward controlling pension costs, Van Gompel said.
The change applies only to employees covered by the union who are hired after Jan. 1, 2010. Pension contributions vary from one year to the next, but for 2010 the village would pay 10.5% of the new employee's salary as a pension contribution and the employee would pay 0.5%.
The 10.5% contribution is the maximum the village would make.
Van Gompel said the contract also provides a retroactive pay increase of 2% for 2009 and a pay freeze for 2010. For health insurance, all employees covered by the contract will pay 10% of premium costs by the end of the contract; some now pay 7%, he said.
Ok. So .5% out of a total 11% contribution is almost a pittance. But it’s a start toward sanity! I explain the issue here and Representative Gottlieb explains it well here.
Through collective bargaining, the five percent employee contribution to WRS has effectively been eliminated. Over 99 percent of all employee contributions are now made by employers on the behalf of their employees. In the current economic environment, and with almost no private sector workers enjoying employer funded, defined benefit pensions, it is simply unjustified for most employees to have no personal stake in the cost of their pension.
Your taxes are paying 10%, 11%, as much as 17.4% (some firefighters) of a municipal employees’ annual earnings for their pension (and in some cases, duty disability) plan. What percentage of your salary does your employer contribute to a pension plan (not many of those left in the private sector) or 401(k)?
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
The comeback that some of my teacher friends and relatives have regarding public pensions and healthcare (the two biggest public employee benefits) is that they are getting paid less than someone else with equivalent education who is in private industry (teachers also get the summers off of course). What is often left out of the equation is job security. The average middle level private sector employee faces a much higher uncertainty level than the average public employee. I'd like to see the studies that compare public/vs private on wages, benefits, hours worked and uncertainty. Probably a sophisticated analysis on the uncertainty side. I have no problem with the excellent and valuable work most public servants and teachers provide. I simply believe that taxpayers deserve a fair shake. Show me the facts then I will decide where I stand on specific cases.
dave allen (Fri Jan 29 07:07:05 2010)
This is a basic problem with politicians at all levels; they have nothing to lose by giving away the store. I'd suggest that ALL politicians be paid on the basis of how well they perform. Double their salaries if they keep taxes down and the budget in the black.
The only problem is that the pols could skimp too much and provide the community nothing, thus binding referendums should be a part of it.
Jack Lohman (Fri Jan 29 07:55:15 2010)
Jo:
Before you get too excited about the "crack in the door" concerning the Village of Brown Deer, it should be noted that they are still paying 10.5% of the pension for their employees.
Also, they are going from 7% to 10% contribution for benefits. Most municipalities and counties are above that. I believe that Outagamie County is at 13% going towards 15% in the current contract. Still not enough but better than the Village of Brown Deer.
These are changes at the speed of a glacier and much more will be needed to address the disparity on what municipalities and counties can afford and what the employees are willing to give.
This looks more like "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic"
Mike
Mike Thomas (Fri Jan 29 09:58:54 2010)
Real change, "change we can believe in," will come when communities file for bankruptcy. Given the intractable, one-sided nature of salary union salary and benefit negotiations, primarily binding arbitration, I'd have to agree with Mike Thomas's assessment. While some movement is of note, the current rules for arbitration in this state are the perfected definition of an oxymoron.
I also concur with Dave Allen that taxpayers also deserve a fair shake and I know of nary a incidence in recent labor negotiation history where the arbitration didn't result in a negative conclusion for the taxpayer. The rules just won't allow for it.
I was held breathless when my School District Business Manager gave his report on Teacher Contract Negotiations when he said something to the effect, 'well, after De Pere Settled for x% increase it was pretty much game over for our district because the precedent was set.' This is not a direct quote but an accurate summation of his remarks.
Herein lies the issue of uncontrollable increases, but at least we haven't reached the depths of despair Californians must feel as they support annual retirements in excess of $ 100 K for over 15,000 folks. Those numbers can be sourced in the Wall Street Journal, 2 weeks ago. Thank God for small favors and small movement towards fairness, turning the ship of Public labor Contracts with a canoe.
Richard Parins (Mon Feb 01 15:38:55 2010)
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