The Piercing Truth

This is right from the dictionary and seems to describe Albuquerque, Berry and Schultz. Fascism (f ash ,izem) noun An authoritarian right wing system of government and/or social organization. (in general use) extreme right wing, authoritarian, chauvinistic and/or intolerant views or practices. Fascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one group over another, national, ethnic, especially social strata or monetarily; a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach. Compliments of one of our Eyes

Feb 27, 2013

PERA: WHERE DID THE PROBLEMS START AND WHO IS LIABLE?

Recently in the news there have been several stories about the issues concerning PERA (the Public Employees Retirement Association).  The problems being discussed concern the actuaries of the fund and ways to ensure the fund remains solvent. Two questions come to mind; one, where did the problems start and two, who is liable for the fund going defunct?

Up until 2004 there were not “double dippers” in PERA. Prior to 2004 a PERA employee could retire and come back to work as long as the employee did not earn more than $15,000 annually.  This worked well and was manageable for the PERA fund to handle. 

Big Bill Richardson tried several times to “tap” into the PERA fund but was stopped by the PERA members applying pressure to their representatives. Well, he finally found a way to “tap” into the fund.

In 2004, the legislature passed the double dipping bill, which was approved by then Gov. Big Billy Richardson.  This allowed a PERA member to retire and return to work, thus, receiving a pension and a salary from a city, county or state municipality.  The original proposal was to allow certain critical positions to be filled by retirees because they could not fill them otherwise, such as, police and fire. Big Bill told them “no”, it is for all PERA retirees or none.  The legislature passed the bill and it allowed all to return.  About this same time, the legislature also passed a 20 year retirement for corrections and other like employees who were on a twenty-five year plus retirement plan. 

 Major Problem #1

What did this mean?  It meant that these people who pay a lesser amount into PERA for twenty years would receive a full pension five plus years earlier. We do not blame anyone for taking advantage of such a benefit.  After all, Big Bill was looking to get a few extra votes.  Here is the problem, who was going to cover the costs of those who did not pay into the system for those extra five years? Who was going to cover the costs of those municipalities who did not make matching contributions to PERA for those extra five years?

 Major Problem #2

When Big Bill refused to allow the program for critical positions such as police and fire, he had a plan.  The plan was to pay his political friends with super high paying jobs and their PERA pensions.  Richardson had over 463 employees who were making over 100k a year as “political appointees” who were “double dippers.”  Richardson was asked to release the names of his cronies’ but Big Bill refused and never did.  Here is the major problem, who paid for all of those huge “double dippers,” many who still work for the State?  This same mentality was used across the state by other cities and county municipalities.  Albuquerque still has many of Marty Chavez’s political pawns, which Berry has been too chicken to get rid of them. We are still feeling the effects of corruption that was started by the Governor’s Office.

 This is the bottom-line; Richardson approved this ENTIRE mess as the Governor of the State of New Mexico for his own political gain. This makes the State of New Mexico liable for all and any damages to the fund and/or the members of PERA who have been or will be affected adversely.  The legislature needs to stop blaming PERA or its’ members for the debacle that was created, caused under the control of the State of New Mexico’s agent, Bill Richardson.

The New Mexico State Statue states the State must exhaust all other means of correcting a problem before they attempt to cut benefits to PERA members.  The State has NOT complied with this as of this time and are moving to cut PERA members benefits.  We foresee a huge lawsuit coming...

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

We must also remember, PERA investments in the Market, took a large "hit", as did real estate and long time businesses, closing. Because of the "deals" made by Richardson & Marty cronies, and adjustments never made, PERA would never be able to recover. Now, because of attrition, pensions are happening more and more. Return to work, aka, "rehires" for the City, pay 6.5% to those who currently pay 4% and will not receive anything on the back side. It may help alittle, but as an overall, alittle is not enough.

Anonymous said...

I researched this an nmlegis and could not find where it was supposed to be public safety only. Eye you got this one wrong, the bill and all amendments included everyone from the very beginning.

To give you an update on the current bill, Governor Martinez on 2/26/12 attempted to amend the PERA bill to reduce our COLA's to 1.5%! This was shot down by hard lobbying by the PERA Board. But this just goes to show you that our wonderful governor is no better than Big Bill.

If PERA is not fixed now I fear we will all be looking at reduced benefits in the future. By that I don't mean COLA, I mean our regular PERA check. You can scream all you want that we paid for this and we were promised, but look around us. Many other public pension plans are failing and they are filing for bankruptcy. The courts are siding with the government that they can do this and reduce our benefits.

Pull your heads out of the sand and recognize PERA is in deep trouble and if we don't act now to fix it we may all be crying over reduced benefits in the future.

Anonymous said...

Eye you didn't get this one exactly correct. But since you are anonymous you don't really have to check your work. Unfortunately many who read your blog are lemmings who don't know how to research this for themselves to get to the truth.

So in an attempt to get the TRUTH out I urge the readers to go to www.nmlegis.gov and search SB 426 in the 2004 session. You will find that there was NEVER a mention that this bill would be for law enforcement / public safety only. This has been a lie that many have repeated, including the Eye.

Let me follow this up with what happened on February 26, 2013. Governor Martinez sponsored a change to PERA that would reduce all retirees COLA's down to 1.5%. She also wanted to reduce the employer increased contribution from 1.5% to .5%.

The good news is the Democratic majority in the committee voted the COLA change down. It still stands at 2%. They did compromise and reduced the employer (city county state) to a .5% increase. They also raised the employer contribution to 1.5% increase.

So our governor wants the worker to pay more but not the employer. These are the facts if you attended the committee meeting. I bet the Eye didn't know any of this because you seem to just toss rumors out instead of facts.

Anonymous said...

A lot of military guardsmen/reservists use and abuse the military leave that the cities/counties grant them. A lot of fire and police who are also guardsmen/reservists volunteer for military assignments for up to 5 years and are granted military leave, yet their PERA time continues to roll and it's not uncommon to see fire and police retire at 15 years will full retirements. That shit needs to stop.

Anonymous said...

The legislators should cut their own retirement benefits before they cut anyone in PERA!

Anonymous said...

The problem with PERA is all of us. The legislators, the workers, the retirees everyone of us. We are all greedy and want someone else to carry the water on this when we all should share a little.

99% of us only bitch and whine. We never take the time to get involved. Hell I don't think most folks even know that PERA is run under a state statute and that bills can reviewed online. Nope it is easier to sit around and bitch and moan with rumor and wrong information, while letting someone run our lives.

Look in the mirror and you will see who is to blame for PERA's issues.

Anonymous said...

AND, where was Diane Denish when Bill was pulling all of his BS. AND, she has thoughts of being the mayor????????????????????????????

Anonymous said...

@10:55

Your argument that the guardsmen/reservists is the straw that is breaking PERA’s back is absurd. Perhaps 8% or less of people invested in PERA are in the reserves, the number on the fire and police departments who are in the reserves is about the same. Who cares if they go off and serve their country, it takes a unique individual willing to serve both their community and country; willing to drop the plow and pick up a rifle at a moments notice. I’m not sure where you came from or what your background is, but that is how this nation was started, people willing to give of themselves to their country. Hell we as a nation should be thanking these individuals since they are doing what many of us are unwilling to do ourselves.

Anonymous said...

My background is that I am a guardsman/reservist of many years (close to retirement) and am very familiar with how the system works with man-days, MPA, RPA, and all other tours of duty government employees often take when it’s convenient for them or when their work environment becomes toxic (i.e., APD right now). The fact of the matter is, the system allows them do take extended military leave for up to five years so I cannot blame anyone who would take advantage of that benefit; however, as a fiscal conservative, I find it hypocritical that we often seek answers on why we are in fiscal crunches when some of the answers are right in front of our faces. Retiring with 15 years with a full PERA pension obviously creates at a minimum of a 5 year gap (in some cases more) in PERA contributions. I agree that guardsmen/reservists military leave benefits account for a small portion of the PERA deficit, but that doesn't make it right. Lastly, as I mentioned, I've been around the system for a while and am fully aware that the majority of extended military leave being taken is not the result of AOR deployments, but rather volunteer cozy man-day/MPA tours of duty that are within the CONUS where the members are making their nice per diem, BAH, and BAS and double dipping for much longer than any other employer (to include the federal government) allows their employees to take.

Anonymous said...

10:55 Pleaae do your homework before you stick your foot in your mouth. Activated military use military leave which both employee and city pay into PERA. They can be credited for military leave without pay upon return. They can not buy back this time therefore your argument about 15 year retirements is uneducated. They can buy back prior active duty military time up to 5 years as long as it has not been credited from PERA.

Anonymous said...

The comments make my point. No one cares about PERA until they think their check will be smaller. The only debate going on is the law that provides active duty PERA members to get service credit for the time they were activated.

Really folks, no other debate? Nothing about the legislative retirement? Nothing about changing public safety to 25 years of service, nothing about the reduced COLA, ending the double dippers COLA, nothing about forcing workers to pay more while employers don't? We really are the problem.

Anonymous said...

@8:03 Police and Fire proposed a bill addressing the issues you speak of. Reducing the mulitplier, reducing the COLA, and increasing both employer and employee contributions. This (SB317) was not very well received and they are still pushing SB27, and reducing contributions made by the employers. I blame the folks in Santa Fe and PERA for feeding this "crisis" and then ignoring proposed solutions.

Anonymous said...

6:48. No way that the majority of the military activations are so called state side cozy assignments. There are a few but very few. Most of the military leave is being used for deployments, pre deployment training, active duty for training and annual training requirements. Out of all employees who belong to military reserve units less than 5% are currently sitting in AGR billets. Federal law allows for a cumulative service of 5 years in your career. This does not include annual training or orders generated by Presidential Orders. PERA chooses to credit all military time because it cost the program very little. They looked into it several times over the years and made the conclusion that the benefit in the gesture outwieghs the small financial loss if any. As a reservist if you have such a beef with this man up, put your name on a complaint to PERA and stop spouting off on a second rate blog.

Anonymous said...

10:04,

Please get it right, PERA does not decide to do anything. It is the legilators and governor (Johnson or Richardson I forget which one) who signed the law that allowed PERA members who are activated to still get credited for their PERA time. PERA only administers this. So you can thank the democratic legislature and Johnson or Richardson for getting this done.

Anonymous said...

Ha ha ha...... You have all been duped into a Ponzi Scheme.... Possibly worse than Social Security...

Anonymous said...

11:29,

Ignorance is bliss and in your case you are full of B****S.

PERA is not a ponzi scheme. Get your facts straight.

Anonymous said...

I believe it was either Governor Johnson or Carruathers who signed into law the military activation benefit. It was during Desert Storm in 1991 when this law first was applied.

One who knows the truth said...

It's a violation of your civil rights brought to you by none other that Ray Schultz the king of liars and civil rights violations, where they compile databases on citizens and based on that database which is built on police reports, medical records, court records, DMV records and anything else they want to include, they will make a decision on how to "handle you."
Because shitz is better than you. This little program is one of the reason the shit bag wanted to stick around. So that he can claim it for his little resume and have it be his shitty little legacy left behind because pompous assholes like him have to take credit and build themselves up. Why not, when the day's over they are nothing but pathetic specimins of human beings.

Oh yea, and your personal information, including HIPPA protected information will be sent right to a cop's personal cell phone from this chief's new data unit. Probably the same cell phones they use to take pictures of people's family members at crime scenes to share with their friends over a beer.

Anonymous said...

It came about in 2004 this time around for sure. Not sure about previous. It really doesn't amount to a pebble in the pond to PERA. Not sure where it originated but PERA has the authority to enact such credit without law.

Anonymous said...

9:40

PERA can enact this without something in the statute that allows them to? Where dose it say that?

Anonymous said...

1:06:00

You're a fool, the entire Banker Run System is a fractional reserve debt driven ponzi scheme.

Maybe when you grow up you'll realize it's all about borrowing against the future earnings of the unborn.

Anonymous said...

One name: Robert Gish. Research it. He's the former president of PERA. He himself is "double dipping" now that he's retired. He is corrupt and probably skewed this whole program in a way where he would win out. He retired the latter part of the first decade of this millennium.