The recent editorial in the Albuquerque Journal on government employee pensions is spot-on: taxpayers should not foot the bill for New Mexico’s pension debacle. We at the Rio Grande Foundation have outlined the problem and outlined the specific reforms needed to actually fix the problem:
Step 1—Fix the Public Sector Over-Employment Problem
Step 2—Transform Defined Benefit System into a Defined Contribution System
Step 3—Continue to Increase Employee/Retiree Contributions to the Retiree Healthcare System
Step 4—Expand the Private Sector
Unfortunately, so far, it seems like most legislators are more willing to stick taxpayers with the bill for underfunded pensions than they are to stand up to the unions. The ultimate problem with these “defined benefit” plans is that politicians can easily be convinced to sweeten the pot while sticking future generations of taxpayers with the bill. The proverbial chickens are now coming home to roost.
The private sector in New Mexico CANNOT sustain the local and state public sector retirement programs: there simply is not enough private sector employment at sufficient wages to pay the taxes necessary. They have run out of other people’s money.
There is help resulting from excessive federal employment in NM, but that gravy train is fast disappearing. Did not everyone else see the change from federal grants to unfunded mandates over the decades? You are watching a down-home play at this with the argument over who buys furniture for the Santa Fe courts building ($40 million for a building whose functions could be conducted in a tent?)
Well when you live as they say “in a death spiral state” its just a matter if time before we can no longer sustain the spending as we get deeper and deeper in the hole. Our legislature does not seem to care. When reality hits, there’s going to a lot of angry people on thier hands when they don’t get thier checks in the mail.
Hey folks, We are a Poor State because we keep on voting for those that keep us poor. It helps that we are highly uneducated or highly dooped. Let’s toast our states Democraps.