{"id":61952,"date":"2011-04-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-hosts-panel-discussing-state-pension-crisis\/"},"modified":"2011-04-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-27T00:00:00","slug":"uri-hosts-panel-discussing-state-pension-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2011\/04\/uri-hosts-panel-discussing-state-pension-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 hosts panel discussing state pension crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\u201cIf you\u2019re in a hole, stop digging\u201d<\/p>\n


\nKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 27, 2011 \u2013 Although there are discrepancies in the actual reported amount of statewide pension underfunding, Ernie Almonte cited enormous numbers, about $13 billion, or $13,000 for every citizen in R.I. to pay the promised pensions and health care benefits of retired workers.<\/p>\n


\nAs part of their annual Vangermeersch Endowed Lecture series, the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s College of Business Administration brought together a panel to help inform Rhode Island residents of the issue.<\/p>\n


\nWith that goal in mind, the panel featured Ernie Almonte, former Rhode Island auditor general, Allan Fung, mayor of Cranston, and Gina Raimondo, R.I.\u2019s general treasurer, and Gary Sasse, director of Bryant University\u2019s Institute for Public Leadership, as moderator. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cIt\u2019s going to take Draconian measures to fix this problem,\u201d said Almonte who looked at the amount unfunded and lack of options to do so. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe people want progress without change,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to increase pension funding, but we don\u2019t want to take money away from other services or raise taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nFung took a look at the problems he faces regarding the pension. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe problem Cranston is facing in these tough financial times, is that unfortunately, we can\u2019t put in the full $24 million into pension plans that we are required to. If we were to try, pension funding would increase from 25 percent to 34 percent of the city\u2019s budget. The difference, almost $4 million, would have to fall on the taxpayers backs, and I just can\u2019t do that,\u201d said Fung. <\/p>\n


\nBesides lack of appropriate funding, Raimondo has started looking to the future and seeing that the state is headed into a situation where there will not be enough workers to fund the current pension plans. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe pension crisis isn\u2019t just another issue the state has to deal with; it\u2019s the big issue,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have a choice to fix it once and for all that is fair, or we can do nothing and face the consequences later on.\u201d <\/p>\n


\nIn order to find a solution, Raimondo says both the public and politicians need to start looking at this issue with honesty. By laying the real numbers out on the line, looking at the longer life expectancies of retirees and their benefits, and taking action now, the state might start to fix the problem and keep past promises at the same time.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s easy to push the problem aside when you don\u2019t have to pay for it until 15 years down the road,\u201d said Raimondo. \u201cThat\u2019s what happened in the past and it\u2019s catching up to us now. If we do nothing, in about 15 years $1.2 billion will have to come out of our state budget to pay into the pension system.\u201d <\/p>\n


\nChanging the pension plans to alternative retirement funds, such as 401(k)s, may seem like a quick fix, but it doesn\u2019t help the current situation. A retirement fund change that only impacts new employees will not work since it negates the funding for accrued work and current pension plans. <\/p>\n


\n\tFung has run into this problem in Cranston, trying to change pension plans through state law by bringing it to court. The case was lost in arbitration and then again at the Supreme Court. <\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe promises in the past made by former administrations are legally binding. Once plans are put into collective bargaining agreements, the only way to make changes is through negotiation and collective bargaining,\u201d Fung said. <\/p>\n


\n\tThe state has started taking initial steps to reduce the intensity of the problem. Working with Governor Chafee, the state has prevented re-amortization, a process that takes money out of the pension system to balance the budget rather than leaving the money to compound interest. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cRhode Island is not alone in facing this pension crisis; it is a national issue,\u201d said Raimondo. \u201cIt\u2019s a monumental problem and one that I would like to see Rhode Island emerge from as a leader.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPictured above

\nFrom Left to Right: Ernie Almonte and Allan Fung listen as Gina Raimondo discusses her opinions of Rhode Islands pension crisis. 溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Communications & Marketing photo by Michael Salerno Photography.<\/p>\n


\nThis release was written by Alicia Blain, an intern in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Department of Communications and Marketing and a public relations major.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you\u2019re in a hole, stop digging\u201d KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 27, 2011 \u2013 Although there are discrepancies in the actual reported amount of statewide pension underfunding, Ernie Almonte cited enormous numbers, about $13 billion, or $13,000 for every citizen in R.I. to pay the promised pensions and health care benefits of retired workers. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}