Tag: Pensions
Comptroller, budget secretary concerned about cuts to pension payments
Comptroller Peter Franchot and Gov. Larry Hogan’s budget secretary are both raising objections to a proposal reducing state pension payments, saving money that may be used to increase education aid and state employee salaries.
“It is a bait and switch on rank-and-file teachers and state employees,” said Franchot, as well as “bait-and-switch” on the state’s rating agencies and taxpayers.
Read More
High-priced search for investment officer gets Hogan’s attention
Among the items that got Gov. Larry Hogan’s attention at his second Board of Public Works meeting Wednesday was a $90,000 contract to search for a new chief investment officer (CIO) at the State Retirement and Pension System.
Read More
Response: State pension system says reforms put Md. on trajectory to full funding
While we can certainly agree with Mr. Hayward’s opening statement that the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System “suffers from chronic underfunding,” we must part company with his assertion that reforms to the System over the last four years have not addressed the problem.
Read More
Every GOP budget cut clobbered by Dems
Republican legislators applied their usual persistence in trying to trim the Maryland budget Wednesday and were rewarded with their usual result: Every one of the dozen amendments they offered to reduce spending were defeated by overwhelming Democratic majorities.
Read MoreExtra pension payments cut by Senate committee to balance budget
The Senate Budget Committee voted Friday to take $500 million over the next five years from extra payments into the state pension system to balance the budget this year and for the next four.
Read More$300 million pension payment on chopping block to balance Md. budget
Much or all of an annual $300 million extra payment into Maryland’s pension system is on the chopping block as Senate budgeters seek to balance Gov. Martin O’Malley’s $39 billion budget at a voting session Friday.
Read MoreTreasurer, comptroller urge senators to restore $100M cut in pension funding
In unusual joint testimony, Maryland State Treasurer Nancy Kopp and Comptroller Peter Franchot, chair and vice-chair of the state pension board, pleaded with Senate budgeters not to permanently cut $100 million in state payments to the retirement system. They said the cut proposed by Gov. Martin O’Malley had high long-term repercussions and undermined the state’s credibility with bond rating agencies by reneging on promises made in 2011 pension reforms.
Read MoreBarry Rascovar: O’Malley’s latest pension grab
It takes quite a bit for the quiet, diplomatic State Treasurer, Nancy Kopp, to criticize her fellow Democrat, Gov. Martin O’Malley. But she gently laid it on the line in opposing O’Malley’s $100 million budget cut for state pension contributions.
“It’s a question of trust,” Kopp said
Read More
State treasurer Kopp opposes O’Malley’s $100M cut in Md. pension contribution
State Treasurer Nancy Kopp told lawmakers Thursday that she opposed Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposed $100 million cut in the pension contribution, and said it would undermine trust by the state’s bond rating agencies.
“I think this is a very difficult thing to defend with the rating agencies,” Kopp told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Public Safety and Administration.
Read More
Unions, pension board unhappy O’Malley cut $100M in promised payment to retirement fund
The largest unions representing state workers and public school teachers are upset at Gov. Martin O’Malley’s decision to permanently cut $100 million from extra payments into the state pension system. The money came from additional employee salary deductions required by a 2011 pension reform, and was intended to help cure underfunding in the pension system.
Read MorePoll finds strong support for minimum wage hike; state employees pensions considered too low
A new poll found strong public support for increasing Maryland’s minimum wage to $10 an hour, a step being pushed for the upcoming General Assembly session.
The poll by Goucher College also found the majority of the Maryland public regards current pensions for retired state employees as too low, and also thinks all Maryland workers, not just those employed by the state or local governments, should have a pension.
Read More$50 billion in unfunded state and local retirement benefits, study says
The money Maryland’s state and local governments have failed to set aside to fulfill pension promises made to teachers and employees has ballooned to more than $22.5 billion over the past five years, a new report has found.
But the counties that run their own pension systems are in much better shape than the state of Maryland, with the exception of Prince George’s County.
The most under-funded retirement benefits continue to be health insurance for these retirees, which amount to $28 billion for state and local governments. Only a handful of county governments have tried to sock money away.
Read More
Recent Comments