Pension Facts

This page has various links explaining the benefits of the Defined Benefit Pension and who is behind the attacks on these plans.

Here is an interesting fact regarding the argument that many conservative politicians, billionaires and corporate make about public pension plans causing state and local governments fiscal problems.  The following was taken from a report by the Institute for America’s Future called The Plot Against Pensions.  The report outlines how a division of the Pew Charitable Trust and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation have manufactured and promoted false arguments against public pension plans to push their agenda to eliminate retirement security for working people in america.

“States and cities have for years been failing to fully fund their annual

pension obligations. They have used funds that were supposed to

go to pensions to instead finance expensive tax cuts and corporate

subsidies. That has helped create a real but manageable pension

shortfall. Yet, instead of citing such a shortfall as reason to end

expensive tax cuts and subsidies, conservative activists and lawmakers

are citing it as a reason to slash retiree benefits.”

The report goes on to say that the state and local governments subsidize corporate America to the  tune of 80 BILLION dollars a year – far greater than the cost of the pension shortfall.  You can read the full report by going to this website https://ourfuture.org/plotagainstpensions and downloading a copy of the report.

Here are the top ten reasons to keep a defined benefit retirement system according to the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems.

http://www.ncpers.org/files/2011_ncpers_research_series_top_ten.pdf

After the financial meltdown of 2008 there were many reports on the dire crisis facing public pension plans.  Here is a follow up article on how the pension funds are rebounding.  The publication is from the National Public Pension Coalition.

http://www.ncpers.org/files/NCSL%20one%20pager%20on%20pensions.pd

Many private sector employers have switched to Defined Contributions pushing the burden of retirement planning, savings, investing and costs to their employers.  Private employers and some public employers claim that the Defined Contribution system is a legitimate way for people to save for retirement.  However the results have shown that retirement savings drop by over 50% for the employee.  Here is a synopsis on what has happened to retirement savings from the switch to defined contribution plans from defined benefit plans.

http://www.dbpfmiami.org/?switchfromdctodbplan

A lot of the pressure on local, state and national politicians to get rid of defined benefit plans comes from billionaires who take an active role in trying to keep regular americans working into their 70’s.  One of those billionaires is John Arnold, an Enron created billionaire who has spent millions on trying to get rid of defined benefit plans.  The following link gives you insight on how much money is spent by Arnold and his friends to fund and influence the results of research by so called “independent think tanks” .  Here in Florida the Chamber of Commerce and the James Madison Institute are two of his favorite paid mouth pieces.  Both of these institutes are actively trying to take away pension benefits for average Floridians while advocating for tax cuts for the rich and for corporations.  Follow the link to see the truth about John Arnold.

http://www.truthaboutjohnarnold.com/

Here is an paper on what the costs associated with switching plans from defined benefit to defined contribution plans.  Although many times groups claim that there are huge savings the following paper raises questions on that theory.

http://www.dbpfmiami.org/?costdctodb

With the loss of defined benefit plans and the switch to defined contribution plans the retirement savings of the average American has dwindled to almost nothing.  The following study by National Institute of Retirement Security shows the status of  the average American family’s retirement savings.

http://www.nirsonline.org/storage/nirs/documents/RSC%202015/final_rsc_2015.pdf