Pension reform in our time
Staff reports | It looks like the General Assembly is serious about enacting state pension reform this legislative session, perhaps as early as next week in the House.
Currently, the state pension systems are grossly underfunded, with tens of billions of dollars in unfunded obligations. The shortfall amount swells from $20 billion to $40 billion, depending to whom in Columbia you are talking. The pension system covers everyone from state employees to city cops and county teachers, and more.
Instead of kicking the can down the road for future administrations to deal with, the House and the Senate have introduced pension reform bills that are virtually identical, with single points of contention in each package. That means both chambers could concur on their version and send it over for a quick round of debate in the opposite chamber.
The niggling differences are so small — one included authority over 2 percent of the pensions system’s funds — they could easily be done away with in a single conference committee later in the session.
Good news for state pension enrollees: your fund will soon be much healthier. Bad news taxpayers: you can expect marginally higher tax burdens in the future. The cost won’t be immediately noticeable since it will be spread among state, county, and city tax burdens.
Trump in South Carolina, by the numbers
Here are a few interesting numbers from the new Winthrop Poll of 703 randomly-selected South Carolina residents that was published yesterday by the good folks at Winthrop University:
78: Warmth rating average for blacks or African Americans on a scale of 0 to 100 of how people felt about a person with zero being “cold” and 100 being “warm.”
75: Warmth rating for whites.
71: Warmth rating for Hispanics
61: Warmth rating for former President Barack Obama.
59: Warmth rating for Muslims.
55: Percentage of S.C. voters who cast ballots for President Donald Trump.
51: Warmth rating for refugees coming from other countries.
48: Warmth rating for Trump
47: Disapproval rating in the poll by S.C. residents for Trump
44: Approval rating for Trump
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!
The pension bill does little or nothing to help the stability of the pension fund.
Stop reading press releases and do your homework.