The Wisconsin Lie Exposed – Taxpayers Actually Contribute Nothing To Public Employee Pensions

[Magda Hassan]

The Wisconsin Lie Exposed Taxpayers Actually Contribute Nothing To Public Employee Pensions Feb. 25 2011 - 11:56 am | 11,731 views | 4 recommendations | 39 comments By RICK UNGAR Pulitzer Prize winning tax reporter, David Cay Johnston, has written a brilliant piece for tax.com exposing the truth about who really pays for the pension and benefits for public employees in Wisconsin. Gov. Scott Walker says he wants state workers covered by collective bargaining agreements to "contribute more" to their pension and health insurance plans. Accepting Gov. Walker' s assertions as fact, and failing to check, creates the impression that 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. Via tax.com How can this be possible? Simple. The pension plan is the direct result of deferred compensation- money that employees would have been paid as cash salary but choose, instead, to have placed in the state operated pension fund where the money can be professionally invested (at a lower cost of management) for the future. Many of us are familiar with the concept of deferred compensation from reading about the latest multi-million dollar deal with some professional athlete. As a means of allowing their ball club to have enough money to operate, lowering their own tax obligations and for other benefits, ball players often defer payment of money they are to be paid to a later date. In the meantime, that money is invested for the ball player's benefit and then paid over at the time and in the manner agreed to in the contract between the parties. Does anyone believe that, in the case of the ball player, the deferred money belongs to the club owner rather than the ball player? Is the owner simply providing this money to the athlete as some sort of gift? Of course not. The money is salary to be paid to the ball player, deferred for receipt at a later date. A review of the state's collective bargaining agreements many of which are available for review at the Wisconsin Office of State Employees web site - bears out that it is no different for state employees. The numbers are just lower. Check out section 13 of the Wisconsin Association of State Prosecutors collective bargaining agreement "For the duration of this Agreement, the Employer will contribute on behalf of the employee five percent (5%) of the employee's earnings paid by the State. " Johnston goes on to point out that Governor Walker has gotten away with this false narrative because journalists have failed to look closely at how employee pension plans work and have simply accepted the Governor's word for it. Because of this, those who wish the unions ill have been able to seize on that narrative to score points by running ads and spreading the word that state employees pay next to nothing for their pensions and that it is all a big taxpayer give-away. If it is true that pension and benefit money is money that already belongs to state workers, you might ask why state employees would not just take the cash as direct compensation and do their own investing for their retirement through their own individual retirement plans. Again, simple. Mr. Johnston continues- Expecting individuals to be experts at investing their retirement money in defined contribution plans instead of pooling the money so professional investors can manage the money as is done in defined benefit plans is not sound economics. The concept, at its most basic, is buying wholesale instead of retail. Wholesale is cheaper for the buyers. That is, it saves taxpayers money. The Wisconsin State Investment Board manages about $74.5 billion for an all-in cost of $224 million. That is a cost of about 30-cents per $100, which is good but not great. However it is far less than many defined contribution plans, where costs are often $1 or more per $100." If the Wisconsin governor and state legislature were to be honest, they would correctly frame this issue. They are not, in fact, asking state employees to make a larger contribution to their pension and benefits programs as that would not be possible- the employees are already paying 100% of the contributions. What they are actually asking is that the employees take a pay cut. That may or may not be an appropriate request depending on your point of view but the argument that the taxpayers are providing state workers with some gift is as false as the argument that state workers are paid better than employees with comparable education and skills in private industry. Maybe state workers need to take pay cut along with so many of their fellow Americans. But let's, at the least, recognize this sacrifice for what it is rather than pretending they've been getting away with some sweet deal that now must be brought to an end.
http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/0...-pensions/