Doom & Gloom
- By Jerry Taylor
- Published 12/7/2009
Jerry Taylor
Retired Seattle Police and President of the RSPOA.
Jerry founded LEOFF1.Net in 2000 and is the editor of the site.
When someone wants you to open your wallet and send them money, a popular device to motivate you to action is to recite alarming reports of doom and gloom. You are then urged to send money so that that group and protect you.
Obviously, there are times when such tactics are appropriate. An example familiar to all of us was SB 6166 back in 2001. Unfortunately, it is a tactic that is used so frequently that it becomes like crying wolf. Remember last fall when there was an initiative pending in California that would have made some significant negative changes in California pensions? We were presented with that news as though it was going to happen right here in Washington State. Of course the report left out information about why it would not apply in Washington State and how the Washington State pension laws differ and prohibit such an action. The underlying reason for that was to alarm.
The initiative failed but was never a threat to LEOFF 1 anyway.
Today there are lots of news items to generated doom and gloom. The state budget is in the hole by $2.6 billion. The ability of the state to issue bonds is being squeezed because of a constitutional limit on borrowing. And, many other items. So, if you want to be scared, you can find plenty of negative articles. We have posted some of that information here under the TVG category.
However, I would urge each of you to carefully look at the facts. For example there is a TVW presentation where Matt Smith, the State Actuary, discusses pension funding. As you listen to him you will note that he is talking about PERS and TRS, not LEOFF 1. Also, even given the sad state of those pensions, he emphasizes there is no crisis.
Matt Smith has been presenting this pension funding report since September. The things he is saying today are not new. As a part of the presentation he did a pension funding review of LEOFF 1. We published that on September 8, 2009. It is a five page article and is pretty comprehenisve.
Obviously, there are times when such tactics are appropriate. An example familiar to all of us was SB 6166 back in 2001. Unfortunately, it is a tactic that is used so frequently that it becomes like crying wolf. Remember last fall when there was an initiative pending in California that would have made some significant negative changes in California pensions? We were presented with that news as though it was going to happen right here in Washington State. Of course the report left out information about why it would not apply in Washington State and how the Washington State pension laws differ and prohibit such an action. The underlying reason for that was to alarm.
The initiative failed but was never a threat to LEOFF 1 anyway.
Today there are lots of news items to generated doom and gloom. The state budget is in the hole by $2.6 billion. The ability of the state to issue bonds is being squeezed because of a constitutional limit on borrowing. And, many other items. So, if you want to be scared, you can find plenty of negative articles. We have posted some of that information here under the TVG category.
However, I would urge each of you to carefully look at the facts. For example there is a TVW presentation where Matt Smith, the State Actuary, discusses pension funding. As you listen to him you will note that he is talking about PERS and TRS, not LEOFF 1. Also, even given the sad state of those pensions, he emphasizes there is no crisis.
Matt Smith has been presenting this pension funding report since September. The things he is saying today are not new. As a part of the presentation he did a pension funding review of LEOFF 1. We published that on September 8, 2009. It is a five page article and is pretty comprehenisve.
