About Toby Sells’ cover story “The Pension Crisis” …
All financial security markets are much higher now than they were pre-recession. All “paper losses” experienced via the recession should have been more than recovered by now, unless some dumb moves were made. So the fall the funds took during the recession is no excuse.
What it boils down to is they took absolutely no action when it became apparent they were way underfunded. They did some very dumb stuff under Mayor Willie to make sure his appointee buds would get fat. Remember the “retire in 12 years giveaway” for appointees? This just made it worse. Also, the legions of police and firemen drawing disability pensions while they work other city jobs is an amusing sideline to this mess. They could have taken action years ago to change the fundamentals of the plans, but nothing was done.
The fixes are going to be painful for retirees, because there will be major increases in the amounts they will pay for health insurance. There will also be major cuts in the amounts current workers will receive in retirement benefits. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see current retirees’ pensions reduced. They refused to look at the problem or even consider doing anything about it until the state told them they had to get real with their financial statements.
The city’s credit rating is about to take a nosedive too. It was real clever becoming a stadium owner a few months ago, eh?
JuliusJones
Clearly, mistakes were made, but no one is to blame as we look forward, not back, and try to resolve this issue by redefining it. Thank heavens Memphis has Beale Street Landing or we’d be in serious trouble.
Jeff
About Bianca Phillips’ story on animal fighting, “For the Birds (and Dogs)” …
I find it interesting but not at all surprising that the penalties are stiffer for dog fighting than for cock fighting. After all, I’m betting a good number of those in the majority in the legislature either have attended a cock fight or have constituents who are heavily involved in cock fighting.
Both are pretty disgusting things to do in my opinion. Of course, maybe another part of the reason cock fighting carries lighter penalties is the fact that we eat chickens, and we make pets of dogs. Just showing a bit of favoritism for one species over another.
GroveReb84
Greg Cravens
A last-minute amendment has been added by Stacey Campfield (R-Knoxville) to allow the trunking of poor gay uninsured schoolchildren. I’m not sure how that will affect passage.
Chris in Midtown
A very good idea to try to punish those who are barbaric enough to want to watch such atrocities for sport. And though I will likely not agree with Chris in Midtown on much of anything, I have to say his post above is hysterical.
Niles 4334
About Bruce VanWyngarden’s Letter from the Editor about President Obama and the Affordable Care Act …
It doesn’t matter how high the Marx-Obama Healthcare Act is lauded by media and the O’Regime. The people won’t be forgetting the intrusive fiasco before the first Tuesday in November 2014 arrives.
Nightcrawler
I love how Nightcrawler is spewing the same tired warnings he did before 2008 and 2012. Some folks never tire of foaming at the mouth.
B
Not bad for a Muslim who wasn’t even born in the U.S., especially when you consider the you-know-what storm he inherited. Maybe we need to look for other Allah-worshipping, socialism-touting “aliens” out there who may want to run the country.
Miejep