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RETIREMENT ROULETTE. Your Retirement…. a guarantee or a gamble?. AT RISK: CalPERS & CalSTRS Security. Secure Lifetime Benefits Professional Investment Managers Provide Superior Investment Performance No Risk to Participants Death and Disability Benefits
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Your Retirement… a guarantee or a gamble?
AT RISK: CalPERS & CalSTRS Security • Secure Lifetime Benefits • Professional Investment Managers Provide Superior Investment Performance • No Risk to Participants • Death and Disability Benefits • Savings on Fees and Administrative Costs
Arnold and Company say….The pension system is “another government program out of control.”-Feb. 2005
“Public employee pension costs are devastating government budgets throughout California.”“Public Pensions: Solutions to crisis is in private sector,” by Assemblyman Keith Richman, San Diego Union Tribune, 2/2/2004 Assemblyman Keith Richman (R-Chatsworth)
“[D]ue to union backed changes in the law over the last seven years, public employees are retiring on lavishpensions.”Six Fallacies about Government Pensions, by Jonathan Coupal and Richard Rider, 1/31/2005 at www.hjta.org, emphasis added
“Now we are going to the source, right there where all the evil is and we are going to fix this problem once and for all.”-Feb. 2005
“We want to feed the private sector, and we want to starve the public sector.”-Jan. 2005
“[Arnold and aides] want to unload the state’s fixed costs onto school districts and employees who, like workers in private businesses, would carry the risk of market volatility.”-“California gears up for pension showdown,” Jim Wasserman, Associated Press, Feb. 22, 2005
ACA 5 Retirement Scheme • Outlaws Secure Benefit Plans for All New Public Employees and Forces Them intoIndividual Risk Accounts • Eliminates Disability and Death Coverage for Public Employees and Survivors • Makes the Next Generation of Retired CA Teachers Among the Most Vulnerable of All Working Americans
ACA 5 Retirement Scheme • Worsens Budget Problems • Costs $7.9 BILLION in Transition Costs • Bleeds School Districts • Is the Most Extreme Proposed Pension Change in the Country
Individual Risk Accounts Benefits Dependent on Ups and Downs of the Stock Market Individual Investors Make Low Returns and Pay High Administrative Fees
Individual Risk Accounts No Death and Disability Benefits
Individual Risk Accounts NOCOLA NO Purchasing Power Adjustments
Individual Risk Accounts NOSavings NO Budget Fix
Why ACA 5, the Anti-Fix? • Keep Workers Voices Out of Corporate Boardrooms • Windfall for Financial Services Industry (Governor’s 2nd Largest Source of Contributions)
ACA 5: Serving the Corporate Interest$$$ Post-Enron/WorldCom/Tyco, corporate interests and their allies have launched a nationwide attack on the corporate reform movement and are assaulting pension funds.
ACA 5: Serving the Corporate Interest$$$ Gov. Schwarzenegger has acknowledged this plan is part of “a national battle” and he’s counting on “national money coming in to help us fight the battle.”
ACA 5: Serving the Corporate Interest$$$ • Among Schwarzenegger’s allies: • Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform • Stephen Moore, Free Enterprise Fund • Jon Coupal, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association • President Bush
Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform GroverSays…. "115 people control $1 trillion in these funds…We want to take that power and destroy it." -May 14, 2001 “We'll also be able to shrink the number of government workers already on the payroll.” - Sept 2004
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Says…. “There is an overriding issue of what happens when you have these superlarge retirement systems straying from bottom line of the benefit of members and straying into corporate governance.” - Jonathan Coupal, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, Jan 2005
Bush Says…. “Because the — all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those — changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be — or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled." - Explaining his plan to privatize Social Security, Feb 2005
The Real Agenda: Worker Representation Active Ownership Sound Investment Guidelines Investment Manager Accountability
Since Proposals Are for New Employees, Will ACA 5 Affect Me? Without new hires in plan, contribution rates will rise New financial pressures on districts will impact collective bargaining Pension COLAs and Purchasing Power Adjustments will disappear Pits workers against each other, weakening our collective strength
What Can We Do? Defeat the Richman Bill (ACA 5), the initiative and similar attacks on our retirement Protect public employee secure retirement Stop Social Security phase-out Build a movement to ensure secure retirement for all
What Can You Do? Sign up for e-mail Action Alerts at www.aft1521.org Write your elected officials Author Op-eds and letters to the editor Spread the message on campus and in your community Get trained as a spokesperson Sign a COPE payroll deduction card Stay informed through your Guild chapter