Jackson Jambalaya

Facebook has truly become boomerville.

And also subsidized comms for third worlders on prepaid mobile phones.

I know about the increase to the agencies. Here is the problem, all they have to do is give me my money back as a state employee and I will invest myself. It's not my fault the PEERS is stupid. As state employees we have no say what goes on with our own retirement money. I have started another investment portfolio because I really don't know if it will be solvent when i retire.

I think the legal term for PERS is ‘Ponzi Scheme’

PERS makes for a scary story, until you realize that the state is running a $4 billion budget surplus.

Could have floated bonds and plugged half the hole in 2021-2022 when interest rates were near zero. The payments on the bonds would be less than the cost of the proposed contribution increases to the state. But no, we have go send that money back to fat cats in the form of tax rebates and tax breaks.

Attn 10:57 Apparently you are the dumb one. It is called “PERS” not “PEERS.

Chris Graham should skip the PERs meetings and go fix ABC.

Signed,

Every restaurant owner and package store owner in Mississippi

Katie bar the door! There's going to be run on PERS.

Austerity! Give us austerity! Everyone gets a haircut!

What a poorly-run state. Too paraphrase #45, Mississippi is a real s--thole state.

I think everyone should get what they work for and deserve. I’ll start with me getting to keep my paycheck and not paying taxes to finance others early retirements.

@5:25
Working 30 years for the state or any other company is not early retirement. It’s just retirement.

Would love to know if the PERS staff is willing to share the stats on how many applications have been filed for PERS refunds in the last few years, and if there's an uptick in those numbers. That would show if there were in fact a "run" beginning....

@7:29am, not true, quite the opposite, the rest of Mississippi taxpayers work 40-50 years AND PAY Mississippi state income taxes to subsidize PERS. Private sector pensions don’t use taxes to pay for their pensions like PERS so don’t really care how long they have to work to retire. Other states are going broke to trying to pay their state retirees early retirement. Common workers in Mississippi cannot retire til they get SS at 67. You’re oblivious to reality. In other words, people working at Walmart and everywhere else til they are 67 are paying the taxes to subsidize your early retirement at 55 years old from PERS. Good luck trying to justify that.

8:33 - While I'm busy trying to justify, how about you get busy justifying your scatter-gun generalizations. I'm a PERS retiree who worked 42 years until I could finally afford to retire at 65. I've known many state, county and municipal employees who worked 40-50 years prior to retiring. You're no white knight in shining armour in that regard.

You're the one oblivious to reality. People do not have a goal of retiring at 67, nor do most work until that age. People have a goal of retiring as soon as they can afford to, regardless of age. Nobody can afford to retire without health care coverage and PERS doesn't offer or provide that.

Anybody covered by PERS who retires at 55 has worked for 30 years. Anybody who retires at that age is either on a spouse's health plan or is working another job to pay for healthcare. 30 years of work is not early retirement. You posted nonsense. But you feel good about it.

@ 7:48 - Unless one has left the system, there is no such thing as applying for a PERS refund.

You are pointing blame at the wrong things. The fundamental issue is not the retirees or even the Board. It's much bigger than that. It is all consequences of irresponsible Central Banking. The devaluation of the dollar and how quickly it is devaluing due to irresponsible spending and printing of dollars.

The fiat monetary system is broken. There is nowhere to run. In the last three years we have literally seen the 10 year treasury yields at <1% and both stocks and bonds dropping at the same time. Very scary cracks in the financial system.

The more money that is printed, the more quickly it has to be deployed into investments because today it is losing its value so quickly. That's why in the last 40 years, most people aren't just "teachers" or "firefighters" or "policemen." They are also investors. Because money has to be deployed into a yield earning asset so quickly because it is being devalued so quickly.

Sadly, the most at risk is the middle class. There is increasing pressure on pension funds and insurance companies to take on more risk in the reach for yield so that promised future benefits can be met. Meanwhile, savers are being punished and have been earning next to nothing.

Central banks have lost the independence they have always claimed is vital. They have bowed to financial markets and the insatiable appetite of governments for cheap credit. A very scary formula.

yeah, 8:33, screw state employees and how they just sponge off taxpayers. Who cares if they're f*cking REQUIRED to participate in PERS? who cares whether or not they'll get what they were promised in exchange for working for this sorry ass state. who needs em? get rid of em all, right? get rid of the state income tax, too. just go with a sales tax, right? you think that'll work out well for your walmart employees?

@10:24

It's a shitty deal for state employees, but it's not like PERS being underfunded is new. Politicians promised employees money that other people would pay for. PERS participants made their deal and they're hoping future taxpayers get screwed. Hopefully they have planned for some sort of haircut so if it happens, it won't be too painful for them. But while it's a shitty deal for them, if they are banking on (and advocating for) future taxpayers getting screwed, they don't exactly have clean hands.

@9:42, from the PERS website below, says retirees are eligible for state-sponsored health insurance through PERS and they conveniently withhold premiums for retirees.

Insurance

Each retiree is responsible for deciding on the right insurance coverage to fit his or her personal needs. However, for the members who continue participation in the state-sponsored insurance plan after they retire and for the Medicare-eligible retirees who choose participation in the PERS-sponsored plan, PERS conveniently withholds premiums from benefit payments.

@11:16 - only true for state employees, not county, city...etal.

Name one time the elected officials in Jackson acted proactively
About 15 years ago I was told by a member of the House who had
been in office for many years that “We don’t get anything out of preventing
a problem but when we fix a problem we all look good”He was one of
the old time politicians but I guarantee it still holds true
When PERS is on its last leg and it’s an election year something will finally happen

9:42 For many years my goal was to retire at 65. Now I am 65 and I hope to never retire. I have seen so many people wane physically and mentally after retirement. When my friends tell me they are retiring I ask "Why?"
Retirement is a recent invention. Stay productive. Keep working.

@11:16 - Here is the comment to which you replied: "Nobody can afford to retire without health care coverage and PERS doesn't offer or provide that."

The comment in quotation marks is accurate. PERS does not offer or provide insurance continuation.

Given some choices available to eligible retirees (the retiree pays for all choices), PERS only serves as a third-party conduit by withholding the insurance premium the retiree elects to pay for his insurance.

I believe you are trying to suggest that PERS OFFERS insurance coverage to retirees. It does NOT. Insurance continuation is very expensive.

So, 8:33, you may not be aware, but in addition to the taxes that state employees pay (sales, income, property, etc.--just like every other citizen), they also pay a mandatory employee contribution--to which they have no choice or say. Part of the retirement"benefit" was always to offset the lower pay that professionals working in state government get. For example, in many state agencies, the state has professionals who are REQUIRED to have a bachelor's degree, but who earn less than a fast-food hourly worker.

But, in return for the lower salaries, they get "benefits." There is a portion of their pay that goes toward health insurance and retirement--neither of which is very competitive with the private sector anymore. Their insurance doesn't include things like vision or dental--that comes completely out of pocket. So, in a way, state employees, who generally are already paid less than their private sector counterparts, get to pay extra for their own retirement.

Best of all, every time they increase the employEE contribution, it is a pay cut for employees--again, which they have no say in. Unlike the federal government, which has annual salary increases and pay adjustments throughout the year, state employees may go years without any upward adjustment.

It is one of the reasons it is getting harder and harder to find and keep good employees. But you want services provided (like water testing) and roads fixed, what are you going to do?