Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona blast The Arizona Republic for manufactured state pension ‘crisis’

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I am one of the few people who reported on the bogus right-wing think tank studies relied upon by the anti-union Arizona Republic in its multi-part series about the public employee pension funds to manufacture a pension "crisis" for the Tea-Publican legislature to address.

Today, Tim Hill, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona, reiterates what I have reported previously in this opinion in The Arizona Republic. Hill: No fix is needed for police, fire pensions:

As president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona, I find myself on the verge of admiration for our state's Legislature and its session recently past. It's not often you can fix something that isn't broken and punish every firefighter and police officer in Arizona – and earn congratulations from the state's largest newspaper in the process.

In the world of Arizona politics, I have to imagine that's what they call a "win-win-win."

Unfortunately, the Legislature's so-called pension reform is bad news for more than 20,000 public-safety workers in Arizona, notwithstanding The Republic's editorial thumbs-up ("Pension reforma welcome move," May 5). Let me explain.

Despite the politicians' sound bites, the manufactured "think tank" studies and the ensuing headlines, Arizona's Public Safety Personnel Retirement System has never been at a "financial precipice," nor on the verge of bankruptcy.

Rather, the fund experienced a steep drop at a moment in time, during the worst recession since World War II, much like Arizonans' 401(k) investments and our home values.

In fact, during the past fiscal year, the PSPRS fund has surged 13.6 percent, as the stock market has rebounded. Our fund, recently named Mid-sized Fund of the Year by industry publication Money Management Letter, has regained more than $900 million in the past 12 months. As the market recovers fully, the fund would have recovered, too.

[See: Money Management Letter Presents The 10th Annual Public Pension Fund Awards (March 13, 2011)]

But that would have been a lost opportunity for some politicians.

By tying the fund's momentary decline to a handful of real issues – large benefits paid to a few high-ranking officials and cities occasionally rehiring people who'd just quit, boosting their paychecks – these opportunists took some smoke and created an inferno. Then they rushed in to save the day.

The result? Arizona firefighters, who on average earn less than $40,000 a year, will see smaller weekly paychecks as we pay more to fund our benefits.

And public-safety retirees, who in 2010 earned an average pension of $44,000 statewide, will struggle even more, as the cost-of-living adjustment they count on is reduced. That cut especially hurts rural retirees, who get no Social Security (most firefighters aren't eligible) and pay sky-high insurance rates.

In many cases, these retirees earn a monthly pension benefit of $2,000, while paying $1,300 monthly for health insurance.

Unfortunately, the Legislature and those who applaud them rarely draw distinctions between frontline civil servants who earn a middle-class salary and a middle-class pension benefit, who have taken pay cuts and furlough days, and, as the editorial put it, the "crooks who cheated the system" and "shake public confidence."

In the world of public safety, we understand shaken confidence full well after being called "greedy" and "robbers" by the same elected leaders who love to pose beside us in photos and commercials. Those insults aside, we'll continue to risk our lives to keep Arizona safe. That's the job we signed on to do.

The dangers we fight are real, not manufactured. Fortunately, so is the gratitude we get from citizens, who we hope understand the real truth.

The state of Arizona owes both a contractual duty (under Article 29 of the Arizona Constitution) and a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries of the public employee pension funds. The reduction of benefits violates Article 29 of the the Arizona Constitution, and is almost certain to result in a legal challenge being filed to the so-called pension reform legislation.

Of course, the anti-union Arizona Republic does not care that what it advocates for is unconstitutional, and it will condemn any litigants who challenge the pension reform law in court. Just as the editors did recently in an opinion regarding the legal challenge to Prop. 113, the "secret ballot" referendum that is plainly unconstitutional under federal preemption doctrine. Prop. 113 lawsuit a huge disservice.

There is something seriously wrong when a newspaper with a long and sordid history of anti-unionism works hand-in-glove with anti-union right-wing think tanks like the Goldwater Institute and right-wing politicians in the Arizona legislature to manufacture a "crisis" to screw public employees on their pensions, including public safety employees. When does this anti-union fervor cross the line into political propaganda and advocacy rather than objective news reporting?

Where will the Arizona Republic stand on Governor Jan Brewer's secret plan to end the civil service merit selection system and return to a political patronage spoils system for her Tea-Publican supporters? Hmmm, I wonder.