Michigan Votes Forum

 By more than 55%!!! Why should the pension be based on anything other than final pay-excluding benefits, overtime, sick leave, etc. Show me a private industry where all that is added in. Some don't take vacation pay, etc clock in a lot of overtime (whether they worked that time or did anything constructive if they were at work is debateable) in their final year to get even bigger retirement checks. (at least they say they don't take them). Is it any wonder the state is hurting financially?.

 Maybe these departments pensions are self funded. The couple departments I know members at have self funded pensions.Some cities took normal low end millage monies and used them for whatever they wanted to for several years rather than put them into pension funds as ear marked. Then when tough times come the SELF FUNDED pension fund goes down.... then low and behold ignorant politician blames police/fire pensions for the dip in the pension fund. They leave out the fact that Millions upon millions of dollars were spent elsewhere. A lot of the BIG pensions are to administrative personal service contracted positions high above in departments. Lets not compare apples to oranges and start talking career comparison between first responders and people that have everyday, safe, Mon-Fri, home at night, home on the weekend, home on the holiday jobs! The best part about this bill is the hypocrite fool behind it doug geiss. This man (term used lightly) fought for medical benefits for his then part time city council position in Taylor. Even though he held benefits at Ford. His achieved goal was medical coverage by tax payers and a FAT reimbursement check from Ford for being able to decline medical coverage. What a scam fool, he now earns his 80,000+ per year Rep. position screwing people with his little friend (CP) whispering in his ear.

I understand there are financial issues in many municpalities, but does limiting hard-working police officers and firefighters to a 55% cap on retirement solve these problems?  Perhaps a better way is to limit the contribution percentage allowed by municipalities, making the workers fund the rest.  That way, if the police officers and firefighters want a better retirement, and their personal contribution percentage goes up, then they can vote at a Union meeting whether or not to pursue the better retirement.  Where I work, our municipality is capped at a 6% contribution, and the officers pay the rest.  Right now, we are paying 10% into the fund, and are looking to better our retirement this year (increasing our personal payment to 12-13%). 

Hopefully this bill can be amended to alllow those police officers and firefighters who personally pay into a retirement system and have a municipality who is happy with their part of the contribution to earn what they deserve when they retire.