Your Florida Representatives Who Don't Care About You!

Here is a list of the members of the Florida House of Representatives and how they voted on House Bill 5607, which cuts the percentage of your DROP from 6.5% to 3%. Remember their names and who they are when you vote next year or if you stop them, because the ones who voted Yea for this bill certainly showed they have forgotten about you and your families. A little "shout out" and "thank you for nothing" to Rep. Marti Coley, representing Calhoun, Liberty and parts of Bay, Gadsden, Jackson, Leon, Okaloosa, Wakulla, Walton counties; a particularly shameful display of voting Yea. You see her deceased husband, Representative David Coley who's seat she took after he died, was and remained an Auxillary Trooper and was proud of it, and her recently deceased former brother-in-law Scott Coley, a TSA Sky Marshall who was a former trooper/k-9 handler for many years with our department and served with distinction, told me while in the hospital he was going to ask her to vote no because of the many friends he still had with the FHP. Look at the list, see who is in your district, see how they voted, then when you make contact with them during your shift or when you vote do what you think is right, because they will tell you that's what THEY did. :wink:

http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sectio...3&SessionId=64

And you had better get used ti it.

Several major tax watch organizations are now campaigning against the high cost of government employees benefits. just this morning I watched one report that stated when the government employee benefits are combined with their salary the government employee makes twice the amount of money that those in the private sector.

Because of reports like this you had better get organized at your local and state levels as your benefit packages will and should be more in line with the private sector. If you want to keep for high cost of retirement packages than you had better be contributing more than the current .25%, much more.

huh

[Average Joe]

Better be hanging on to the seat of your pants as round two is not far away........


Second in the "They're Burning Your Money" series this week on Fox Business

For the second year in a row, senior citizens will not receive a cost-of-living adjustment in their Social Security checks for 2011, because the government says there was no growth in a key inflation index used to measure benefits.

That is the second year without an increase since the government launched automatic adjustments pegged inflation in 1975. The first time being 2010.

You don't see such reductions yet on a nationwide scale when it comes to government worker pensions. Not only do government workers pull down salaries larger than the comparable private sector worker, but the pension and benefits they get also typically outstrips the private sector.

As New Jersey governor Chris Christie has noted, "A retired teacher paid $62,000 towards her pension and nothing, yes nothing, for full family medical, dental and vision coverage over her entire career. What will we pay her? $1.4 million in pension benefits and another $215,000 in health care benefit premiums over her lifetime." Christie also says that state worker benefits are on average about 40% higher than what the Fortune 500 worker gets.

Much of Fox Business's focus this week is on spending on the federal level. But cities, counties, parishes and states are struggling with the same issues - and have to raise taxes or make cuts. Which is why Fox business takes you to Rye, N.Y., where local officials are mulling hiking property taxes to help pay for government pensions.

A study done by Northwestern University and the University of Rochester study says public pensions on the city and county level are underfunded by $574 billion.

But the researchers found that state-run pensions are underfunded by $3 trillion. The Pew Center on the States has similar findings.

It says there's a $1 trillion gap between how much states have set aside ($2.35 trillion) and how much they need ($3.35 trillion) to cover retirement benefit costs.

Pew estimates that shortfall will have to be paid over the next 30 years by states and local governments, costing each American household $8,800.

And the $1 trillion gap may even be wider because the numbers Pew based its study on are from early 2008, before the stock market plummeted (states' fiscal years end in June).

This year alone, 16 states have slashed benefits for government employees or forced them to personally increase their own contributions to their retirement accounts, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

States like Colorado, Minnesota and Wyoming, have moved to cut the benefits of current workers, rather than limiting changes to future ones.

Missouri has made dramatic cuts across the board, as has New Jersey, where the state treasurer has refused to rule out the possibility that even current retirees will see their pension checks slashed or their health premiums go up as the state struggles with an enormous pension shortfall.

The differences between public and private benefits is pretty stark. Only 1 in 7 private sector workers has a pension. This compares with 90% of public workers.

Ten years ago, more than half of the states had fully funded pensions. By 2008 - the latest data available - just four states could make that claim: Florida, New York, Washington, Wisconsin.

Eight states -- Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and West Virginia - have one-third of their pension liability unfunded.

And 19 states are said to have "serious concerns" funding their pensions, including California, Illinois, Arkansas, Colorado, Maryland and Nevada.

Five of these 19 states have pension-funding levels of less than 62%: Illinois (54%), Kansas (59%), Oklahoma (61%), Rhode Island (61%) and Connecticut (61%).

In Rye, New York, Mayor Doug French says he may have to raise property taxes by 2% next year to help contribute more money to the fund. Rye's pension fund went from $1.3 million last year to $1.7 million this year. Rye residents are footing the bill.

Outrage over government pensions came to the forefront this year when the news broke that officials with the City of Bell, a tiny, low-income community outside Los Angeles (per capita income was $24,000), were earning huge salaries and benefits. Four City Council members earned $100,000 a year even though their positions are largely part-time. The City Administrator, who oversees services for the town of 38,000 earned almost $800,000 per year, double what the President of the United States earns. Charges have been filed, officials have resigned, and council members voluntarily docked their pay.

Government pension reform is now on the table in a big way in states like Missouri, which passed pension reform legislation earlier this year. Under the legislation, new government employees must contribute to their pension plans for the first time, starting in January.

Plus they now have to work twice as long until they become vested and can access those savings. Also, the retirement age will rise from 62 to 67 - the highest in the nation, along with Illinois. The plan is expected to save the state $660 million over the next decade.

Such government worker compensation reform is why unions have been active pushing for various state tax and spending increases on the ballots in 33 states.

Leaders of the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union have agreed to coordinate spending millions of dollars in the midterm elections to support pro-union candidates, most of them Democrats, reports indicate.

The two labor organizations say they have a combined $88 million or more to deploy in this year's election cycle.

The SEIU, with 1.8 million members, reportedly has budgeted $44 million, up 26% from 2006. Most of the SEIU's $44 million comes from the 300,000 of its members who donate $7 monthly to the union political-action committee. In the last midterm elections, union households represented 23% of the electorate, according to exit poll data.

What private sector jobs do they compare me with to come up with I make double? Is there a private police force some where in Florida.? I would say half of goverment jobs don't any exist in the private sector.

Lastly, how much turn over and/ or dept jumping do you think would occur if law enforcement got a 401K vs a Pension? I truly belive the pension is the number one factor for retention in our profession.

What private sector jobs do they compare me with to come up with I make double? Is there a private police force some where in Florida.? I would say half of goverment jobs don't any exist in the private sector.

Lastly, how much turn over and/ or dept jumping do you think would occur if law enforcement got a 401K vs a Pension? I truly belive the pension is the number one factor for retention in our profession.

I absolutely agree that the State Pension Plan is the ONLY REASON most law enforcement officers stay in this career field. It looks like a great fascinating job when you are young, but after you do it for about 10 years, you see just how stressful and non-rewarding this job really is nowadays. If it was not for the future pension being somewhat decent, I would have left years ago to do something else..........ANYTHING ELSE!!

It just kills me that now that the economy is weak and the job market is TEMPORARILY poor, they have targeted Government employees pay & benefits? It used to be that the private sector paid much more then the Government sector and nobody ever complained that Government employees were paid very poorly? Government jobs were always been seen as middle class to poverty level employment and most people did not want to do public service work when they could earn so much more on the outside!

This economy has even effected the availability of Military jobs, as many people just want a paycheck and have looked toward the United States Military as a secure way to earn a buck and have benefits. What next......are they going to start complaining that the U.S. Troops earn too much money and have excessive benefits?

It's just the hot topic right now because of the temporarily weak economy and it will pass when the economy recovers....and it will recover! In the meantime, lets just hope that the fools in Florida Politics don't make knee jerk reactions that will drastically hurt the Government workers of Florida.

Matter of fact, recent commercials advertising for Alex Sink have said that the State of Florida Pension Fund has already shown drastic signs of recovery over the last 6-8 months and is expected to continue to do well.

Too many crybabies in this Country that are jealous of anybody or anything that does well. Sad if you ask me.

Iam a republican but I hate to say it I will be voting for Sink for only one reason and that Rick Scott is going to hammer our retirement if he gets elected.

Our tax dollars pay the salaries, which pay for union dues, which pay for ads for Democrats that sponsor bills to increase the size of government (and pay for public sector employees), which in turn requires additional taxes, to pay their salaries. Un freaking real. Which is why these type unions should be illegal - there is a conflict of interest.

Did that bill cut the pension for "vested" employees? Also, not all employees are law enforcement personnel. We, vested employees, have a contract with the state. They cannot easily take away our benefits. Additionally, our benefits are not comparable to the teacher example cited. They do not pay our health benefits, nor have they been for the last two decades I have been employed by the county. Our plan is fully funded and conservatively invested. That's why I have sad it is stupid to compare our salary to TPD. Thier pension is not as strong as ours. - Go ahead with all the ugly comments now. Sing the praises of TPD's salary. I've already heard it. If it was so great over there, why are you not there?

I would not vote for Sink, no matter what. She is a plastic elitist.

Look into what you are saying about Scott (in depth), and then make up your mind.

Simple solution: Find out which candidates the leadership of HCSO is supporting and VOTE THE DIRECT OPPOSITE. The office has been lobbying in Tallahassee every year now to defeat or halt any "Bills" that increase or support LEO's Rights, so the answer is simple.