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While public employees and teachers face this increase [in pension contribution percentage from 7.65 to 9.65], as well as a raise in the retirement age, a freeze on cost-of-living adjustments for current retirees and a 2 percent cap on future cost of living increases, [Governor Paul] LePage’s personal contribution rate to the retirement system will remain the same, which means he’ll be paying $21,420 over four years.
If LePage faced the same increase as state employees, it would cost him $5,880 over his term.
Unlike teachers and state employees, however, the size of the governor’s pension doesn’t depend on how long he pays into the system. As soon as he leaves office, he’ll begin receiving a three-eighths of his salary, which works out to $26,600 annually.
(…)
It is difficult, then, to take LePage seriously when he says, “I know some teachers and retirees are struggling, but we need honest and shared solutions to solve our pension problem,” as he did last week, or when his spokesperson talked about “shared sacrifices” as they announced the budget.
LePage’s budget shows the same lack of fairness on a larger scale as well. Last week, LePage’s commissioner of the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, Sawin Millett, explained that the money raised from these payment increases on teachers and public employees isn’t targeted to shore up the state’s pension system, but will instead pay for other budget priorities, including $203 million in tax cuts.
I don’t want to hear one more wealthy politician, pundit, Koch fiend, or Peterson goon talk about “shared sacrifice” ever again unless they can tell me what it is that they’re sacrificing. Are the top 1% who own more than a third of the wealth proposing anything that will lighten their own wallets? Reduce their own health care? Eliminate their own jobs? Beggar their own retirements? Are they volunteering to cut back on anything that ordinary people would consider a necessity? No, the only meaningful cuts they suggest for themselves are to their taxes.
“Shared sacrifice” is shared like “clean coal” is clean. It’s just plain sacrifice, and we’re the goat.
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But, but, but… There’s only ONE Governor.
Eli!
Is publicity on this getting any traction?
ELI!
ELI!
Of course it’s shared sacrifice. All other public employees share the cost of exempting DoucheBag, err….LePage.
Buzz!
KELLY!
I haven’t seen anything anywhere.
You linked to the Kennebec Journal. Is that just online, or local, or what?
Should we find some more mainstream Maine rags & send them a link?
MARGARET!
Yeah, that’s exactly it. It’s not sharing if it’s not, well, shared.
Another video clip I considered for this post (probably even available, being Viacom) is a scene from the South Park episode where the boys adopt a starving African child – Cartman keeps trying to steal the African kid’s food, and when the other boys tell him to share, he starts wheedling the kid to “share” as he steals his food.
Checking the Googles, it looks like Think Progress, Bangor Daily News, and NBC Portland are all covering it.
So it is catching on. Good.
Starvin’ Marvin? Yep, one thing is certain, Cartman is the resident Conservative: Closeted Gay Crossdresser, hates everybody not white and Christian, looks at himself as the ultimate most deserving person, borderline Sociopath and without any conscience at all.
“Democrat” Cuomo is using the shared sacrifice crap to gut medicaid so the rich won’t have to be taxed.
Cuomos a freakin obamacrat.
I wonder if “I <3 beastiality" Paladino would be the better choice.
My description of Cuomo (DINO) is that he’s no different from Christie (R-CRAZY) next door.
Mind-blowing hypocrisy!
Cuomo is godawful, and was definitely on my mind when I was writing this. And while it is primarily the Republicans pushing austerity as an excuse to punish working people in general and union members in particular, there’s a reason I said “politician” and not “Republican” in that last paragraph.
gaw……..so much bad news,wanna go under the covers
It is all just lies! Shared sacrilege my ass it is blatant Class Warfare plain and simple. WTF are the RICO investigations? The Republicans are waging CONCERTED ATTACK on the Middle Class and the Poor.. We must RESIST! Don’t be a BORG!!! Resist! This is completely against what our founding Fathers envisioned for our Country…
NY couldn’t even find a breathing R to run against him, so he can do whatever he wants.
Pataki’s still alive, right?
If he’s alive, he obviously didn’t want to run against Cuomo.
I hear Carl Paladino is still available…Maybe round 2?
From the waist down.
He can be Palin or Bachmann’s running mate.
I said living. Considering the campaign he ran, I doubt that he passes that test.
BTW, he appeared locally right after making some egregious homophobic remark, so about a dozen Gs & Ls, including some of my new friends, went to his appearance & stood silently with signs. Almost no one showed up, so it got no publicity, but they felt good about it.
I hate to be less than totally in awe of our Founding Fathers, but I’m not so sure that cuomo and christie are too far off of the original unspoken intent of their aims. The Constitution was not written to include everyone as equals. It has only evolved that way as people gained a clearer insight of what the words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence mean. The Founding Fathers gave us a good start to build something better, but at this rate we are quickly destroying the foundation.
Hmm…good point. Maybe we can get a few LGBT New Yorkers to wind him up…
LOL, Margaret! Any more on the job front? (Sorry for the OT personal question, been AFK much of the day, and when here, been reading the Japan threads.)
He would completely destroy himself in the first three sentences he uttered. Such a hate filled man.
Keep in mind that T-Paw in true Rethuglican fashion exemplifies all things “shared.” No taxes, said he. Gave Minnesota ginormous increases in fees, in property taxes [but he didn't do that, it was the locals, nosiree, not he], and a six billion hole in the budget.
No wonder the punditocracy say he’s the least worst likeliest presidential nominee. Until the Kochroaches pump up the Mittster.
*sigh* Sometimes I think Americans are best defined by their hysterical cowardice and the ones that aren’t are defined by their mercenary opportunism.
Both groups are defined by their credulous simplicity.
Nope. I’ve heard zilch from the people that called me last week.
Meanwhile, across the river from T-Paw country, a governor learns it ain’t over yet….
yep…sneaking out side doors, decoy cars. Man of the people, all right.
Why don’t you just come out and say it? CLASS WARFARE!! This is what’s going on now and has been for decades.
Maybe you should invite Michael Pirsch to write for FDL. He wrote a very impressive article for Truthout entitled “Class Warfare: the Final Chapter.
Let’s stop pussyfooting around this issue.
Thank You Very Much the Republicans and the TeaParty… If their wishes were all granted we would quickly fall into a fourth world existence! Grand mom and grandpa would be in the street along with all the very ill.. What a great thing that would be for Our Country.. right??
Maybe you’re not familiar with Eli’s style but I like it and I hope he doesn’t change a thing. You could always write your own diary and call it “It’s Class warfare and I’m not Gonna Pussyfoot Around!”
Dr. Kirk Murphy is upstairs…
Why Fukushima’s “spent” fuel rods will continue to catch fire
I read this article in Mother Jones the other day. Used to be you had the business interests and evangelical on one side and a coalition of other groups like Unions, ehtnic minorities and interest groups on the other. The democrats had a base. They no longer really do. the thugs still got the business interest and the dems are in retreat. In fact, as many post here, the dems look like they are vying the thugs for the business interest group. It certainly seems, in line with the class warfare theme and not shared sacrifice that business interests can do or say no wrong. If there is any truth in that then we need to put together a coalition to defend what we have left or stand to lose it all. Maybe the crooks at Tammany were just that, crooks, but maybe they kept the thugs at bay too.
Both parties rely on money from corporations and wealth, so it’s not surprising that that’s who both parties most consistently represent.
Of course. Hence the belated and extremely tepid response to the citizens united ruling. The Vichycrats were going after their piece of the pie. Wise fools. They got zip for all of their efforts and exposed themselves for what they are to all but the most horrendously obtuse into the bargain.
That is so very true and especially since Citizens United. In fact, I think a lot of what O does relates to just this. But who now represents the working people? One time the working people had strong unions that allied themselves to the democratic party. Unions were not particularly liberal but it provided a base. And there was a strong middle class. Now that is going away, via the Walkers of this world and the severe unemploymnet and business money, and there is an accompanying assualt on what had been won, like SS etc. The democrats need money, but they also need a solid base. The dems will likely never have the money of business interests, but if there was a solid base of popular support they could still win. Buy where is the base? Evidently it has gone to the Teas.
When it comes to the supremes, I think things will get worse yet. They will consistently out vote the left on all issues that really matter. And if the thugs win next time around, and you have to worry about that, we will again likely lose another vote.
Well, gotta get some shut eye.
Not sure if this is stupid or not, but couldn’t you just use a lot of iodized salt?
How did Maine get away with not establishing its public employee retirement system as an independent trust that operates within IRS guidelines?
If it is, neither the governor nor anyone else in the Maine government can use increased contributions for any purpose other than employee pensions without incurring spectacular penalties. All funds have to go into the trust, and the trust must be managed independently for the benefit of–and ONLY for the benefit of–the worker/retirees.
They can no more spend the money on tax cuts than they can on buying food for their office holiday parties.
The quantities of salt you would need to take in enough iodine would kill you.
Sightly confused by the quoted portion of the post. Does this mean to say that if the Gov was included in the raise, then he’d pay an additional $5,880 over his term? Otherwise it sounds like he’s paying $21K now and under the new bill would pay only $6K.
Yes, the *increase* will cost him $5,880.
Would have cost him, but now it won’t.
What a guy!
The unions aren’t going anywhere, unless the Democrats let it happen. It’s true that unions used to be foot soldiers on the front lines of cultural change (integration, safety net programs, immigration). As they accomplished more for their members, and their members attained greater economic security, two things happened.
First, they became less focused on those cutting-edge social issues that helped them establish a reputation for protecting the working class and increase their membership. Second, the Dems moved away from the working class and became allied with special interest groups like the environmentalists that pushed trendy, chic social causes that often damaged middle and working class folks economically.
It may be that the events in Wisconsin, NJ, Ohio, and elsewhere will help focus both the unions and the Dems. The unions as both worker reps and agents of social change, and the Dems on middle/working class economic issues. If so, there will be greater enthusiasm and a more secure long-term base for both groups.
Unions have become corrupt like everything else. Did they call Obama out on his hard to find walking shoes? We got Obama apologists and union apologists. Unions have become self serving bureaucracies. If they do not publicly condemn Obama, they are part of the problem.
Human sacrifices?
Your post was very insightful,however,we must understand that the “unions” of today are not Walter Reuther’s UAW but Public Employee pressure groups who,in too many states,have raised the level of their members wages and especially benefits,to unsustainable levels.Their members enjoy health benefits that hard working people in private employment only can dream about.
When a Governor comes along like Christie(R) in NJ and Cuomo(D) in NY who attempts to call a halt on the level of increase,they react like any reactionary who sees his privileges being modified. In today’s United States,the Public Sector unions are no longer a progressive force seeking a better deal for workers generally but have turned into a greedy,selfish lobby just like all the other greedy,selfish lobbies.
So instead of setting up policies to re-raise those folks in the private sector back up to levels they were in the ’50s/’6-s/’70s, when employees in private and public sector jobs had defined benefit plans, reasonable wages AND benefits, we should go about destroying the public sector employment options and drag them down to the same levels as private sectors are today because of all the outsourcing and “right sizing” of multi-national companies who took their tax breaks and screwed everyone anyhow?
So we should finish the destruction of the middle class because we just can’t have any group of workers actually getting ahead except for the privileged, inherited money class who after all earned it by virtue of picking the right family to be born into?
Because that’s really what you are proposing when you buy into the themes promoted by people like Christie and Cuomo (and Kasich and Walker and Scott).
As I wrote about here and here and many earlier posts, it is not the unions and collective bargaining, public or private, that has created today’s problems.
I sympathize with your theory and there is no question that those in private employment have been ground down but why were they ground down?
The basic reason is that the USA is no longer a great industrial nation. Our great steel,rubber and textile industries have all but disappeared.As a result,workers have lost defined benefit plans like pensions because US corporations,in the face of globalization,can no longer afford to offer these benefits.Lets face it,we are not as wealthy as a country as we were 40 years ago.Its only a matter of time until China surpasses us as the world’s biggest economy.
So,in view of this unhappy circumstance,is it really fair for blue collar guys in private employment should have to work unti 67 so some guy on the public payroll can retire at 55 with a big pension and lifetime health benefits,courtesy of the hard work and taxes of the masses in private employment? This is the problem that exists today.Can a nation in economic decline afford to continue to pay these outsized benefits to public employees?
So your solution is to penalize the professional who has gotten bachelors, masters, and often PhDs for doing work as a professional (teacher).
Would you prefer that all teachers have a high school diploma? Or is it because of the education that you would penalize them.
For that is what you are proposing – to penalize the teacher for choosing a profession that does not actually make a large amount of money. The teachers and the Social workers are in jobs that require education, education nearly as detailed and in depth as that required for an accountant or Computer Science major or even a doctor or lawyer. Why would someone want to become a teacher at all then?
You are blaming the public servant because the blue collar worker has gotten screwed while allowing those who have done the screwing to get away with it.
Edit: And those pensions and benefits are not all that outsized for most public service workers. For every person with “outsized benefits” you will find the average worker receiving a pension in the $25k – $30k per year. That is not outsized by any stretch, unless you are listneing to Rush Limbaugh and using his math
Place the blame where it is appropriate – which is not the public service worker.