The alleged attempts to fix the government pension system of Kentucky remain anemic, to say the least, as there have been no attempts to deal with the real problem, which is overpaid and overcompensated government workers.
All that is being done so far is to put a retirement plan in place that is somewhat like a 401(K) for new employees, and cap the cost-of-living increases for government workers already drawing benefits.
With the deficit already at $33 billion and growing, these types of band aid fixes are a joke, and it does nothing to deal with the real problem, which is government workers are paid and compensated far beyond what the productive private sector can pay for, and that wages and benefits need to be slashed to market rates, while government workers begin to bear the major brunt of the outrageous benefits they get by paying more for their own unsustainable plans.
It worked fantastic in Wisconsin, and it should work well here too. It only took a fairly short time after workers were asked to contribute a little bit more to their plans that the situation righted itself. That is what should be done in Kentucky as well.
The problem is the lawmakers are cowards in that they refuse to take these needed steps, and instead are looking to throw this burden on the already heavily taxed private sector by, of course, looking to raise taxes to solve the problem.
Everyone is talking about the lack of a revenue source. There is no lack of a revenue source, there is a lack of will to make those receiving these ridiculous benefit packages to pay more for their own way.
After all, why should us in the private sector have to pay for government workers who get far more pay and benefits than we do? The answer is we shouldn't, and the only long-term solution is to make the government workers pay more for their own way. How hard is that to understand and implement?
No comments:
Post a Comment