Reader says At some point, the property tax increases necessary to fund the salaries, pensions, and health benefits will cause bankruptcies of municipalities, just like Detroit.
We pay your salary (assuming you are a cop or fireman) and it’s wrong that you’re raping the taxpayers with unsustainable raises/pensions/benefits because the VC doesn’t know how to negotiate.
Most studies have shown that public compensation is out of line with the skill, education, and responsibility as compared to the private sector. that is due to politicians spending other peoples’ money and they unattentive electorate.
Its unreasonable to expect states and municipalities to continue to make these contractual promises of pensions to retirees who also got generous salaries and benefits. Years ago workers would sign up for a govt/city/state job to put their time in (20-25 years) for wages less than the private sector with the trade-off being the security of a pension & generous health care benefits. Now we have wages that in many cases exceed the private sector, while still providing the pensions and benefits. At some point, the property tax increases necessary to fund the salaries, pensions, and health benefits will cause bankruptcies of municipalities, just like Detroit.
This article hits the nail on the head.
Who cares? By the time it happens in most places it will be the next generation’s problem — suckers (yeah I’m talking to all of you young people who keep voting for progressives). Too bad you mock conservatives who are trying to save you from the fate you are blindly heading toward. Enjoy your future (or lack thereof).
Just a matter of time…
Let blame the police and fire for Detroit’s problems but don’t say anything about the liberal democrats and their giveaway programs that Detroit is riddled with.
The reader combines police and firemen with the blue collar workers. Those are separate pension funds.
For the retired blue collar workers:
There’s been a freeze put on the retirees pension benefits in the State Pension Fund for next 30 years, no cost of living increases. Those are the retirees already in the system who put in 25+ years at the lower wages for the pension security trade off. This applies to all the blue collar workers. So what’s the beef?
Its known that newer workers and with less than the 20 yrs, a renegotiation was done, they won’t qualify for as much; plus current workers will have to pay increased health insurance cost contributions percentages over period of current and coming years.
#2 you need medication!!!!!!!
There is absolutely no reason to continue to offer such generous health and pension benefits to new municipal workers. It will be hard enough to keep the promises already made by politicians gone by.
As property taxes continue their out of control rise in Ridgewood watch for property values to decline as people leave. Given the current state of complete disfunction with our Village Council, expect this to happen sooner rather than later.
Some person on a previous thread about this subject is delusional. He/she basically said we should pay police/fire whatever they want and they were willing to pay increased taxes for it. Well, guess what, you are already effectively paying for three police forces at very generous salary, pension, and benefits. The average police officer makes about $120k here, and obviously those higher in the chain of command make significantly more.
Ask yourself this — would Ridgewood still have plenty of takers for a police officer role at an $80k or $90k salary level. I would think so, given that areas with much lower salaries can fill their positions.
Historically, police officer salaries were lower than the average citizens but were compensated with excellent benefits. Now, they are higher and still have incredible benefits.
Yes, it is a risky job, but much less so in Ridgewood than in Newark or NYC, and they make much less. It’s probably much more dangerous working as a lineman for PSE&G or working construction than working as a Ridgewood cop so that excuse for higher comp can be dismissed. The real reason for the out of whack comp is that you have volunteers that work for Ridgewood going up against professional union negotiators who play each town against each other. When you consistently do that, comp will go up and send the towns’ budgets into a death spiral.
Why do you think we can afford less cops today than a few years ago? Because each individual cop makes a lot more than before. This is a problem in general for village services. There is no reason that we should have to do with less police, fire, sanitation, parks etc. services than a few years ago other than the fact that the remaining staff on average are making “all in” including health benefits a lot more than in the past.
-Thed.