Beckwith on public pensions

By Jim Stergios
June 12th, 2008

From the Salem News comes another voice against the view that we can just treat inflation adjustments to public pensions as a freebie.

Giving retired state and municipal workers an additional $120 a year to keep up with inflation might seem like no big deal — except that those who will be forced to foot the bill can’t afford it.

Yet legislators appear poised to impose yet another expensive mandate on government in the form of cost-of-living adjustments for present and future retirees, which all told could increase the cost of retirement benefits by $20 billion over the next 20 years. That’s the same amount a recent study said the state must spend on essential highway and bridge repairs over the next two decades — and for which there is also no money.

Geoff Beckwith, head of the Mass Municipal Association, begs to differ:

“This benefit increase has not been funded for either active employees or retirees, so the only way to fund it, would be to have current or future taxpayers pay the bill.”…

Writing in the most recent issue of the MMA newsletter, The Beacon, Beckwith states: “This proposal is not a local option. It is not free. It is a huge unfunded mandate, at a time when cities and towns are already facing extreme fiscal duress and cannot absorb new costs, let alone $2 billion.”