[deleted] t1_iudexrf wrote
[removed]
tacknosaddle t1_iudhcen wrote
>The reason the T is broken is because people were retiring at 38 with a full pension.
That's anti-union propaganda you're parroting. I'd have to dig and find it now, but there was a detailed report commissioned by the state comparing the finances of the T with the subway systems in municipalities in other parts of the country. The conclusion showed that pensions had essentially nothing to do with the budgetary problems of the T.
The information is available, but it is ignored by conservative politicians because it doesn't fit the agenda so you get to hear it stated as an undeniable truth that it is the pensions (i.e. unions) that are the root cause of all the problems. In fact if you hear Baker say that you can tell him to stuff a sock in it because it was his financial shell game in the 1990s that tied Big Dig debt to the T's budget and carries far more blame than anything having to do with the T's pensions.
alohadave t1_iudla4i wrote
> The reason the T is broken is because
It's broken because the state legislature has chronically underfunded it for 40+ years.
Add to it Baker's financial scheme of dumping Big Dig debt onto the agency.
Workers retiring early are the least of the T's problems.
Bluestrues t1_iudn2vk wrote
Do the math
alohadave t1_iudnm0u wrote
You are making the claim, support it. I’m not making your argument for you.
Bluestrues t1_iudy9jx wrote
There it is 😉
Bluestrues t1_iuds10x wrote
Myths and Reality about MBTA Pensions by Iliya Atanasov For the past few years, officials from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and the MBTA Retirement Fund (MBTARF) have promoted the narrative that the T’s pension system has been reformed so that benefits are “fair” and it holds no risk for taxpayers. The truth is that MBTA pension reform has been too little too late; more radical measures are needed in order to ensure that current MBTA employees’ POLICY BRIEF pensions will be there when they retire. The purpose of this policy brief is to debunk the misconceptions around pension reform at the T and map out a simple, legal and fair path for change. All comparisons hereafter are based on the pension rules for the most recent cohorts of MBTA and state employees, who started working after 6 December and 2 April 2012, respectively. Specifically, the comparison is between the MBTA Retirement Plan (MBTARP), the T’s largest pension plan with an unfunded liability of $726 million as of yearend 2011, and Group 1 (Option A, where applicable) under the state retirement system, which is the largest group of Massachusetts employees with diverse job requirements eligible for a uniformly determined public pension. Myth 1: MBTA pensions are commensurate with other Massachusetts public employees’ Contrary to the myth, MBTA employees receive much higher allowances per year of pensionable service than other public employees. At the T, effective provisions to prevent spiking (short-term raises or cashing in unused vacation days that would dramatically increase pension benefits with about the same level of overall contributions) have simply not been implemented. Under the current pension contract, MBTARP retirees receive a membership service allowance equal to 2.46 percent of the average compensation in those three (3) years in which the employee had maximum compensation, multiplied by the number of years of membership service...1
Bluestrues t1_iuds4p7 wrote
Myth 2: Early retirement handouts have been eliminated The T’s much higher service allowance rate and easier to manipulate average pensionable salary base8 are only the tip of the iceberg. One of the motivations for MBTA pension “reform” was the notorious “23 and out” rule, whereby T employees could retire after just 23 years of service without penalty to their service allowance rate. Massachusetts taxpayers are largely unaware that this misguided practice was replaced with a similar provision, which grants a full pension as early as age 55 after just 25 years of service.
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