Comptroller Alan Hevesi meets Carrie Desmond and Kimberly Rall of Bayport-Blue Point TA.
At a time when pension systems - especially public pensions with defined benefits - are under assault by conservatives who view government as the enemy, it is the obligation of unions and progressives to stand up and be counted, state Comptroller Alan Hevesi told the RA Friday morning.
He said federal legislation has already undermined private pensions to the point where 10 million retirees of large corporations have lost their benefits. President Bush's campaign to privatize Social Security was also part of what Hevesi called the "ideological assault" on pensions.
Influential conservatives like Grover Norquist maintain that defined-benefit pensions, like those for public employees, including the NYS Teachers' Retirement System, are "overgenerous."
"It's a myth," Hevesi said. He pointed out that 70 percent of those receiving pensions from the state's ERS retirement system receive less than $20,000 per year, with some considerably less. Most retirees who receive more were members of the uniformed services. If the people who claim public pensions are overgenerous, Hevesi said, really mean that police officers and firefighters should not receive half pay after 20 years, or should not receive three-quarters disability pensions when they are injured on the job, then that can be debated. "But," he said, "our people are living on less than $20,000 a year. That's not overgenerous."
Hevesi noted that the state's ERS retirement system is fully funded, as is the Teachers' Retirement System. Moreover, he said, benefits paid to retirees strengthen the economy when retirees use those funds to purchase goods and services.