Government employees
Thursday, November 20, 2008West Virginia Public Employees: Don't Raise Our PremiumsBy John LaPlanteCategories: Government employees, West VirginiaState employees in West Virginia have not had an increase in their health insurance premiums in three years. Now there's a proposal to raise their premiums by 9% next fiscal year, and by 10% per year for the three years after that. Understandably, employee and retiree groups are not happy. Welcome to the real world, folks.
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Friday, October 3, 2008How Much Do You Owe for Government Employee Benefits?By John LaPlanteCategories: Government employees, PennsylvaniaOne of the more obscure but significant costs of government are pension and health care benefits promised to employees. The Allegheny Institute comments on a rule, implementing by the leading accounting standards board, that now requires governments to report their obligations for health-care benefits for their retirees. By one estimate, the obligation incurred by all state and local governments in the country amounts to $1.5 trillion. The institute's policy brief describes the financial situation of the City of Pittsburgh as well as Allegheny County. Senior policy analyst Eric Montarti says that Pittsburgh is on a "path toward financial calamity" absent significant changes.
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Monday, September 15, 2008New Mexico State Pension System Underfunded (but not as bad as other states)By Paul GessingCategories: Government employeesNew Mexico is just one of dozens of states nationwide with massively funded state pension systems. According to this article, "by 2020, coverage will no longer be considered solvent." Also, "the authority has an unfunded liability of about $4.1 billion but that has dropped from about $5 billion." This improvement is the result of rate increases in recent years. Surprisingly, despite the massive shortfall, New Mexico is actually in relatively good shape, at least according to this analysis. There seems to be several major problems here: 1) Politicians have an incentive to over-promise what they pay state workers in the future relative to what they are paid right away. This is a means of cost-shifting onto future politicians and generations; 2) The inevitable tax increases hurt taxpayers even though they are largely unaware of the future massive burden they will be faced with; 3) From a pensioners standpoint, it is tough to be on a fixed income when fees and rates keep rising. The single most important solution to this problem is to move away from defined benefit pension plans and give employees greater control over and responsibility for their own retirements.
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Thursday, September 4, 2008New York Law Could Sink Towns with Health Insurance CostsBy John LaPlanteCategories: Government employees, New YorkThe Empire Center for New York State Policy warns that local governments in New York could be swamped by health care costs for their employees, if proposed legislation is enacted: It says "The bill would make it virtually impossible for state and local government employers to contain the growing costs of health insurance for their retired employees. It would give unions representing current employees veto power over any change to retiree benefits--even if an employer found a way to offer identical benefits for less money."
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Thursday, September 4, 2008Efficiency in Government Health CareBy John LaPlanteCategories: Government employees, New YorkBetter late than never. From the Albany (New York) Times Union: "The state Department of Civil Service is planning a massive crackdown on what could be thousands of public employees who continue to list former spouses or grown children on their health insurance plans." One such person has already been caught, and has agreed to pay $34,000 in fines and restitution, so the money could add up.
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Friday, August 29, 2008Costs for Teacher Insurance Up in ArkansasBy John LaPlanteCategories: Arkansas, Government employeesImagine this: teachers actually get less of their insurance paid for by the taxpayer than other government employees. Here's the situation in Arkansas:
Compensation comes in a combination of cash and benefits, including health insurance. In a normal business, an increase in money for insurance premiums offsets increased money for salaries. But in the case of public sector employees, it's probably more like "more for government employees, less for taxpayers."
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Thursday, August 28, 2008Will Rhode Island Public Employees Pay More?By John LaPlanteCategories: Government employees, Rhode IslandIn Rhode Island, Gov. Donald L. Carcieri is trying to get state employees to contribute more to the costs of their health insurance plans. Yesterday a judge "insisted that Carcieri cannot unilaterally impose higher health-care costs on nearly 5,000 state employees whose unions rejected a tentative four-year contract last month." It looks like the case could end up in arbitration. I hope the governor is also trying to reform the way that employees are compensated, rather than simply increase their co-pay.
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