Public Employee's Feather their Nest and Invite Harford Countians to Bend Over & Grab their Ankles

from The Harford County Dagger

From the Harford Campaign for Liberty:

I want to make you all aware of the upcoming fleecing of the Town of Bel Air.

This is nothing more than a naked grab of the taxpayers wallet. The Bel Air Town Commissioners are going to vote on Monday 11/17 to increase the pension obligation of the town for new retirees by between 10%-15%. This is an outrage. The current pension rate is 40% of final year’s income.

If approved, it would grow to 50%-55%. This is a huge increase in the entitlement obligation for the town. Most governments are looking for ways to REDUCE their obligations. Not Bel Air! The state of Maryland is $1+ Billion in the hole for 2011. Harford County is $40 Million in the hole. Worse, the state of Maryland is going to push teachers pensions back on the counties, thus worsening the financial standing of local government.

Yet, during one of the biggest recessions in the nation’s history, one where 9,000 folks in Harford are unemployed (Aegis front page 11/10) the Town of Bel Air thinks it is an excellent time to pass the loot to their friends!! This is an abuse of power at worst. It is irresponsible & incompetent governance at best. Neither are good. Both are unacceptable. Politicians who use the public coffers to enrich their friends or themselves is one of the reasons there is a Tea Party & a great reason to throw them out at the next opportunity.

WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT THIS?

The Resolutions to approve this legalized theft will be voted on in the Town Commissioners meeting on Monday 11/15/2010 at 39 North Hickory Avenue @ 7:30 p.m. We need to get the word out on this ASAP.

We need to get people out to the Town Commissioner Meeting to speak out, protest this abuse & hold these Town Commissioners responsible to their employers…the taxpayers of Bel Air. The Commissioners were trying to sneak this through without anyone noticing. So much for transparency. This is flat out wrong plain & simple. I have included the link of the website for the Bel Air Town Commissioners.

Please call them & email them.

Voice your outrage at this assault on the town treasury. Please ask your friends & family to do the same. The people are not their private piggy bank!

Sincerely,
Harford Campaign for Liberty

P.S. Please speak out about this abuse of taxpayer money on Monday at 7:30 at the Bel Air Town Commissioners meeting! See you there!
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Follow up 11/16 from the Dagger comments section....

Tonight Resolution #947-10 was heard before a packed house of over 50 people at the Bel Air Town Hall. Testimony from one of the plan administrators conferred that the pension fund currently has $3.5 million dollars in assets, after recent loses, with a total of 60 town employees participating. A total of six people it is believed would chose retirement if the current plan is enhanced as proposed in the new bill.

If the current resolution is adopted someone currently making $100,000 a year in salary would have their annual pension raised from $40,000 to between $50,000 to $55,000 dollars. If that person lives 20 years, the pension plan would pay out between $1 million to $1.2 million dollars for this single person. Remember the plan currently only has 3.5 million in assets.

It appears the current plan is unsustainable, and any increase in benefit payments is simply ludicrous. I am sure the current employees eligible for retirement have been good public servants and they deserve all that was promised to them when they accepted employment. But enhancing the current plan is simply giving the lion’s share of the accumulated assets to those currently eligible, leaving the scores of other good Bel Air Town employees that will follow in retirement the crumbs. And ultimately, over the years, how much will the retirement fund have to be bailed out by the Citizen’s paying increased property taxes.

The Council voted tonight to table the current Resolution until an independent advisor can review the current state of the pension plan. In light of his comments, and questions, the only Councilman that made it clear he was against enhancing the payouts of the retirement plan was Terry Hanley. It was clearly the Citizens in attendance and Mr. Hanley that slowed down and derailed this run away train tonight.