Comments for The Imaginary Budget at http://www.theind.com , comment 1 to 11 out of 11 comments http://www.theind.com Wed, 19 Jun 2013 06:25:37 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.theind.com/re/7950-the-imaginary-budget#comment-15851 "Did anyone mention that Louisiana regular civil service employees fund HALF their own retirement pensions? " Yeah, well I pay ALL of MY retirement benefits. Welcome to the real world. "Those who go home will be on the unemployment rolls" Yeah, well that's how it works in the private sector, too. If my employer lays me off tomorrow, I am unemployed. Except, I don't go around applying for "unemployment benefits". I'd rather dig ditch first. In fact, I have. - ragin_cajun Mon, 21 Mar 2011 08:57:48 +0100 http://www.theind.com/re/7950-the-imaginary-budget#comment-15825 Did anyone mention that Louisiana regular civil service employees fund HALF their own retirement pensions? Guess I'll be driving half a Kia. Louisiana has been drawing interest off my contributions for nearly 30 years. Jindal has p----ed away millions of federal matching dollars. He could have instituted furloughs or across the board pay decreases, but that would have meant taking $$ away from his pocket pals. He was a screw up when he was appointed to the Foster cabinet and he's screwing all of us now. The biggest toll on the State payroll budget is Jindal's appointees. Yes, he is selling off State owned properties and services. Supposedly citizens still have access to the same services...provided by private entities rather than civil servants. SO what we are actually doing is paying private corporations MORE to provide the same public services that your family and neighbors used to provide as civil servants. And guess what these corporations pay THEIR employees???? A fraction of what civil service professionals were paid..therefore, the money is going into the corporations pocket and your professional workers are headed out of state or transferring to other public jobs. Those who go home will be on the unemployment rolls. - politicallypooped Fri, 18 Mar 2011 19:09:24 +0100 http://www.theind.com/re/7950-the-imaginary-budget#comment-15741 When you spend money your purchases are taxed both at the state and local levels. When the taxes are collected by the merchant they are sent to the state coffers. Several companies receive a 1% tax rebate from Baton Rouge for "job creation" and other intangible benefits allegedly offered by large corportations setting up shop in LA. The amount of money returned to a large company like Walmart runs in the millions... If several hundred companies (I think it's around 400) receive this "tax rebate" then we must be giving back over a billion dollars to large corporations... Jindal has said he won't eliminate this because he considers it to be a "new tax"... But it's not a new tax! The tax rate isn't changing- the rebate is just being eliminated. - JonQTaxpayer Thu, 17 Mar 2011 07:37:07 +0100 http://www.theind.com/re/7950-the-imaginary-budget#comment-15706 by StateWorker The average pension benefit for a LASERS member is $19,000 a year. That's more a Kia Rio than a Mercedes. ----------------- That maybe true but it amounts to a lot of Kias. Nevertheless, it is similar to social security in amount. The problem is how do you pay for it? - James Melancon Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:16:53 +0100 http://www.theind.com/re/7950-the-imaginary-budget#comment-15704 by Lafayette Native "eliminate the corporate tax loopholes?" --------------------- Give an example? - James Melancon Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:12:29 +0100 http://www.theind.com/re/7950-the-imaginary-budget#comment-15696 The State of Louisiana pisses away more money in a week than any of us even realize. ALOT of it right here in Lafayette, too. I personally don't care WHAT they cut so long as they cut spending. There's not a place in the budget of any government in this country that isn't bloated--military, police, regulators, transportation, education, benefits, public works, parks, welfare, all of it. Cut it all. Tax increase is completely unacceptable. - ragin_cajun Wed, 16 Mar 2011 10:52:51 +0100 http://www.theind.com/re/7950-the-imaginary-budget#comment-15691 The question raised is why won't the legislature ask the governor to eliminate the corporate tax loopholes? That's a very good question. Louisiana as did many other states in the early 2000's joined the competitive process of asking major corporations to locate in state. The idea was do whatever it takes to get jobs in LA. Good plan. However what we as tax payers have come to realize is that we are paying for those jobs. Is competing against other states and effectively paying for jobs a good plan? The process shrewdly pits states against states. The end result of this competitive process is almost always good for the corporation but bad for the state. In LA we have so much to offer that major corporations want. Some examples are as follows. Comparatively low cost real estate and low cost of living. Low income and property tax. Extremely high quality of life for LA citizens. Great higher education system. Endless economic opportunity. The list goes on. As a state we need to start looking closely at how much we are willing to pay for jobs. LA has so much to offer and I submit that the state sells itself. The question was why doesn't the legislature ask the governor to close corporate loopholes? Good question. - Lafayette Native Wed, 16 Mar 2011 08:46:12 +0100 http://www.theind.com/re/7950-the-imaginary-budget#comment-15683 The average pension benefit for a LASERS member is $19,000 a year. That's more analogous to a Kia Rio than it is to a Mercedes. State employer contributions to LASERS account for only 2.2 percent of the budget for Fiscal Year 2010-2011. The trust fund has three sources: employee contributions, employer contributions and investment earnings. The greatest source of benefits is employee contributions and investment earnings. LASERS members do not participate in Social Security, so the $19,000 I mentioned above is all these retirees will have to live on, unless we accept the fact that nobody can ever retire. Of course, if nobody leaves the workforce because they can't afford to, it makes the employment picture for young people even worse, doesn't it? Who considers that a desirable outcome? Ninety-one percent of LASERS retirees live in Louisiana. Their pensions contribute about $860 million a year to the state economy. Impoverishing these people should not be considered an acceptable option. Public employee pensions ARE NOT the cause of Louisiana's current fiscal crisis. Condemning public employees to poverty in retirement, while emotionally satisfying to some, will not solve the problem. - StateWorker Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:03:06 +0100 http://www.theind.com/re/7950-the-imaginary-budget#comment-15679 Why won't the legislature ask the governor to eliminate the corporate loopholes such as the 1% rebate on sales tax collections? Wal-Mart gets one as does some four hundred corporations in LA... We'd have a $2 billion excess. - JonQTaxpayer Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:00:58 +0100 http://www.theind.com/re/7950-the-imaginary-budget#comment-15675 Man, I need to proof my comments early in the morning, but I think you can still catch what I'm saying in the first sentence. - RCajunrunner Wed, 16 Mar 2011 04:42:42 +0100 http://www.theind.com/re/7950-the-imaginary-budget#comment-15674 A Defined Benefit Plan that allows for retirement after less than A retirement system where a state worker puts in 30 years and retires at the average of one's highest 3 years salary is quite costly. If you want to drive a Mercedes, someone must pay for that Mercedes. Take your highest 3 years of salary added together, divided by three you get the average. That average will be your pension for the rest of your life. If you start at 21 and contribute at a low salary and work your way up (as most do), you will retire before 51, receiving these payments for life. Very few states provide for 100% replacement and our constitution says we cannot take this away, but I don't think it is at all unreasonable increase the employee contribution for ALL state workers to around 10%. The only problem I have with this part of Gov. Jindal's plan is it does this to only some state workers. - RCajunrunner Wed, 16 Mar 2011 04:40:28 +0100