Jackson Jambalaya

I still am in disbelief that this is a verboten subject.

To think that our "public servants" are fattening their futures while our children's futures dwindle is appalling.

I don't know how many terms they have to serve to get the pension. I know county supervisors only have to serve two to get one. Sweet deal for a part-time job!!

This goes beyond pension.

Eligibility for SLRP is the same as it is for PERS -- 8 years. For a member of the Legislature elected during a normal election cycle, that would mean 2 terms.

All members of PERS get 8-year vesting, whether they are elected (like the county supervisor) or not (regular state employee).

BTW, don't assume that all state employees LIKE being in PERS -- there are a lot who would prefer to opt out and manage their own retirement accounts. The law gives them no choice. This drives younger employees particularly crazy, as many of them don't believe PERS will be around when they reach whatever their retirement age will be (probably 85).

Re: PERS. Many of us believe the money has been so mismanaged in "alternative investments" disguised otherwise, that we are on the verge of leaving state employment, especially since it is mandated that we now put in 9%, as opposed to the previous 7.5%.

I do not know WHY we are FORCED to contribute to this, as if we are too stupid to do it ourselves. It will eventually implode.

SLRP eligibility is not the same other than vesting period. It is a SUPPLEMENTAL (over the top) for the legislature.

Thank the Legislature for the 9% - the PERS Board HAD increased the employer portion, but the Leg. held a special session (w/ 2 hours' notice and while the PERS Exec. Dir. and Board were all at a conference) to increase the employee contribution instead.

A lot of legislators said that other states have higher employee contribution rates, but those are states where the government has no agreement in place to withhold Social Security. There are about 15 state plans where the members make NO contribution to Social Security, so the employee contributions in those states ARE huge. Mississippi employees actually have about the highest contribution rates of any state where the employees contribute to both a state plan AND Social Security -- check out the Public Fund Survey.

But, of course, all state employees are lazy and stupid, so they should just shut up and be grateful they have jobs.

Are we reading the same original post? This is about SLRP not PERS. PERS is the state retirement plan, SLRP is gravy over the top.

If you want to discuss PERS, go find another post.

A jambalaya of [moderated] commentary, politics, culture, and jackassery in Jackson, Mississippi.

Ah, how about stay on subject, jackass. I assure you this is not subject to moderation b/c you sir are attempting to hijack.

What gets me upset about this is, we are paying the salaries of these public servants, and that includes the orther commenters. Public servants are the ones responsible for administrating the government (or not b/c they don't know how - Stokes and Loan), collecting taxes (they do that well, except for employment taxes), spending money on E991 (or not), and most of the "gub'ment" employees commenting here are not literate enough or knowledgeable enough to understand what SLRP is.

The Legislature gets extra retirement, guaranteed, for no other reason other than they are legislators.

Let me see, given your pay, do you save for retirement? 401K? PERS? For those bitching about PERS, its guaranteed vs. a 401K. A 401K can LOSE value and you are out. PERS is a pension, guaranteed and frankly, not available in the private sector unless you are a senior level executive or have been their for at least 10-15 years.

Us poor working stiffs get to invest our money in the market, take the risk, hope it maintains value and ultimately pray the market maintains value. Then we let Goldman Sachs capture the government through bailouts while we sit with a portfolio at 60% value vs. prior bail-out/collapse.

Forgive me for not feeling sorry about you guaranteed pensioners (PERS).

Anyone want to try and explain to me what the "Employers's Accumulation Account" is? Note's are confusing, although I wanted to use stronger language.

Taken from Section IV - Comments on Valuation, Total Assets.

The Employer’s Accumulation Account is the fund to which are credited employer contributions and
investment income, and from which are paid all employer-provided benefits under the plan.

You are going to love this...Cavanaugh Macdonald Consulting, LLC recommends the Legislature give themselves an 11.3% increase in STATE FUNDING to keep the SLRP solvent and GROWING.

Section 25-11-307(1) of State law requires that active members contribute 3.00% of annual compensation
to the Plan.

Section 25-11-307(2) requires that the State contribute a certain percentage of the annual compensation of members to cover the normal contributions and a certain percentage to cover the accrued liability contributions of the Plan. These individual contribution percentages are established in accordance with
an actuarial valuation. We recommend the sum of these normal and accrued liability contributions
increase from 6.65% to 7.40% of the annual compensation of all members. The amortization period of
the unfunded accrued liability of the Plan is therefore calculated on an open-ended basis.

Bill Billingsly where are you?

A jambalaya of [moderated] commentary, politics, culture, and jackassery in Jackson, Mississippi.

Oh, BTW, the Employers' Accumulation Account is $9.4MM....

Hey, November 29, 2010 7:10 PM, you are welcome to contribute, if not I would ban your repetitive comments of no value. You have been allowed to make your point, twice. Get on with it.

Pension actuaries are required to use reasonable assumptions that can be justified. Does the report identify the actuaries that produced the report. Of course using a reasonable interest rate would show that the plan is not funded as well as it should be. Where can a copy of the actuarial report be obtained?

Actuaries is a fancy name for accountant. As an earlier poster mentioned, go read about linguistics; don't use state funds though, or students loans.

November 29, 2010 7:56 PM

Do you want to comment on the analysis that was presented by Cavanaugh Macdonald Consulting, LLC regarding the notes @ November 29, 2010 6:57 PM?

I give up. I defer to a a minor comment.

No, actuaries are much superior to accountants; we just do not have the personality to be accountants.

I would love to comment on the report, but would have to read the whole report for context on everything, including all assumptions used such as mortality, persistency, discount rate, etc. One interesting comparison would be to look at current assets (what they are) and determine the current yield rate compared to the assumed 8% yield assumed for future investment yield.

8:27: ;-)