Pension lawsuit from Rhode Island retired public employees allowed to proceed

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/16/pension-lawsuit-from-rhode-island-retired-public-employees-allowed-to-proceed/



Pension lawsuit from Rhode Island retired public employees allowed to proceed
By Reuters
Wednesday, April 16, 2014 16:52 EDT

(Reuters) – A lawsuit by retired Rhode Island public employees over the state’s sweeping 2011 pension system overhaul will continue after a judge on Wednesday rejected a move by state officials to have the case thrown out.

Superior Court Associate Justice Sarah Taft-Carter found that the retirees’ pension benefits, for which they had previously bargained, suggested enough of a contractual relationship with the state for their claims to continue.

Rhode Island’s 2011 pension overhaul, considered among the most far-reaching in the United States, has been used by other state and local governments as a model to rein in the ballooning cost of retirement benefits for public-sector workers.

But pension changes also prompted public employees’ unions to sue on the grounds their retirement benefits were contractual relationships that were allegedly violated by reforms.

[A Little Weird]

1. Good

Pension reform is something that has had me worried for awhile. One of the main reasons I took a job with state government was because of the pension benefit. If they are allowed to take that away or reduce it from what they promised then how can that be seen as anything less than wage theft?

In my state, the only reason there's a shortfall is because the legislators haven't met their obligation to fund it adequately for years (I can't help but notice that the separate legislative retirement system is adequately funded). They used those funds for other things so their budgets would look better, but the strategy of kicking it down the road for the next guy eventually catches up with you.

[Squinch]

2. Of course they were contractual obligations! How could they be anything different?

I work in a field where I trade off about a third of my possible income each year for the promise of a pension when I retire. That is the deal we struck. I have been paying my end of that bargain for years in good faith.