Shining a light on the public pension crisis

ByRobert Fellner Hours
Flat lay of tax forms, calculator, pencils, and clips on green surface, ideal for finance or accounting themes.

In an exclusive op-ed for the RealClearPolicy website, I address the U.S. public pension crisis. A slice:

While underperforming investments receive the most attention, they aren’t the real reason for the tax hikes and cuts in government services needed to bail out public pensions. In reality, the culprit is the extraordinarily generous nature of the benefits themselves, whose costs are only now coming to the surface.

Take my home state of Nevada, for example. Like most U.S. plans, the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Nevada (NVPERS) outperformed its investment target over the past 30 years, yet costs soared anyway — totaling 12 percent of all state and local tax revenue in 2013, the second highest rate nationwide.

Be sure to read the whole thing here.

 

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Flat lay of tax forms, calculator, pencils, and clips on green surface, ideal for finance or accounting themes.

San Diego Police Department losing most officers to lucrative retirements, not other departments

ByRobert Fellner

The San Diego Police Officers Association and multiple media reports have stated that cops are leaving the SDPD for higher pay at competing departments. This is largely false, the overwhelming percentage of those leaving the SDPD do receive higher pay after leaving, but from their City pensions, not competing departments!