Retirement plans and living standards for nearly half a million South Carolinians are in the hands of state politicians.
On the line are cost-of-living increases, the number of years public employees must work before they earn retirement pay and future contribution rates, all of which stand to change as the state’s top elected officials try to figure out a way to deal with the retirement system’s $17 billion funding mess.
Risky investment strategies and too-generous retirement benefits over the years coupled with the recession have been blamed by fiscal watchdogs as the reason the state’s pension plan has long-term stability problems.
They should be worried. In a state where led by people who don’t believe in government, the deliberate theft of money which workers have paid into should come as no surprise. They can then blame the government for being run so poorly.
RE: “In a state where led by people who don’t believe in government [as defined by John Wilkins] . . . ”
Not yet, man — but soon, we all hope!
Can’t wait until further elections so we can have less of the central planning government that folks like JW approve of. We’ll be breaking out the balloons and streamers if we can have the same effect as we did in 2010 in SC — maybe someday we can get a *majority* of people in our legislature who “don’t believe in [the central planning] government [like JW approves of]” . . .