Rick Scott Will Take Away Your Retirement

Rick Scott is after your pensions, he also wants to make you work another five years to get to your pension, so instead of 25 years you will have to put in 30 years. He also will take away the 3% you earn per year now and drop that down to 2% like was done once before and we had to fight to get that back.

Rick Scot will hurt you.

1. Raise retirement age for high risk from 25 years to 30 years. Non high risk will be raised from 30 years to 35 years. (If you work a desk you will be considered non high risk)

2. Your percent earned will be cut, instead of earning 3% a year you will only earn 2% a year, if you work a desk you will only earn 1.6 % a year because you will not be considered high risk. So for 30 years of work you will only get a maximum of 60% to live on in retirement. But you may not even get that, Rick Scott wants to make you go into the investment plan.

3. Rick Scott wants to force everyone into the investment plan so you can kiss goodbye your retirement, because you will not make enough in the investment plan to live on for more then 5 or 6 years after retirement.

Hold your nose and Vote Alex Sink.

Florida Capital News
Originally Published Oct 26, 2010
Sheriff wary of Scott's plans for pensions
By Bill Cotterell
florida capital bureau

A Republican sheriff has written a memo to his employees urging them to consider how they vote this election while recounting a meeting with gubernatorial nominee Rick Scott and changes to the Florida Retirement System.

In the final week of the close race between Scott and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, a memo by Clay County Sheriff Rick Beseler has caused a stir in law-enforcement circles. "Mr. Scott seems determined that the correct course of action is to reduce (Florida Retirement System) benefits. I was unable to convince him otherwise," Beseler's memo concluded. "I hope this information will be useful as you prepare to cast your ballots."

The candidate's campaign said Scott is not firmly committed to cutting police pensions — although jobs and benefits will "be on the table" in reducing costs of state government. A Jacksonville sheriff who attended the same meeting Beseler had with the GOP nominee said he took away a different message, that sheriffs would be consulted.

Sink's campaign pounced on the Beseler memo, saying Scott's record as a cost-cutting hospital executive would be reflected in his approach to state government if he wins next Tuesday.

Beseler last week wrote an "all personnel" memo to his staff about an Oct. 14 meeting between Scott and six sheriffs that discussed the Florida Retirement System. He did not suggest how employees should vote.

"Mr. Scott stated that the FRS is not sustainable as it is currently structured due to its reliance on what he called a need to generate a constant 9 percent return on investments. He said his business experience shows a 3 percent return is the most that can be expected," Beseler wrote.

Facing revenue shortages of $2 billion or more, the 2011 Legislature is certain to consider changes in employee benefits, regardless of who is governor. The FRS is "non-contributory" and a Senate effort to have employees make a small contribution this year was rejected. Police, firefighters, prison officers and some other "special risk" employees get 3 percent pension credit for each year of service, allowing them to retire at 75 percent of average-peak salary after 25 years on the job. Special risk retirement is nearly double the 1.6 percent accrual rate of most regular office workers in state agencies.

Reducing the special-risk credit to 2 percent a year or limiting it to officers who actually face dangers every day rather than working desk jobs are among the changes discussed in the Legislature and recommended by outside study groups.

Beseler wrote that he presented Scott with information about the health of the FRS, but the candidate was unmoved.

"I pointed out that in the last year, FRS has experienced a 14.03 percent return and has gone up $9.77 billion in value and will return to its position of full funding of obligations," he wrote.

John Kuczwanski, a spokesman for the State Board of Administration, said Monday "those figures are accurate," taken from a June report. In the new fiscal year, he said, the fund's value increased more than $10 billion.

Since its inception, Kuczwanski said, the FRS has always met its required annual rate of return on investments, currently 7.75 percent. Last week, he said, the fund value stood at $119 billion.

Repeated phone and e-mail efforts to reach Beseler on Monday were unsuccessful. The memo did not advise employees to vote for Sink or Scott.

Duval County Sheriff John Rutherford said he got a different impression at the same meeting with Scott. He said the important point he took away was that sheriffs "will have a seat at the table" and be consulted on matters affecting their county operations.

"Things like employees start paying in for their pensions, he said those options are going to be on the table but he didn't say that was going to be his proposal," said Rutherford. "All he was saying was, look, whether it has to be reduction in benefits or additional contributions, there's going to be a process that will involve sheriffs sitting at the table."