DOIN' THE PENSION FUND TWO STEP

From The Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

"Pittsburgh City Council tonight passed a motion compelling Mayor Luke Ravenstahl to appear at a meeting tomorrow to discuss the city's pension crisis.

The motion followed hours of heated discussion over a bailout plan that council proposed and Mr. Ravenstahl summarily rejected today.

Five council members and City Controller Michael Lamb gathered behind a podium this morning to say they'd fashioned the best possible resolution to the pension issue. They said they needed Mr. Ravenstahl's support, but he called the plan unworkable and declined to support it.

The plan revolved around the idea of shoring up the pension fund not with cash but with a different asset -- 30 years of dedicated revenue from parking-rate increases.

"It is not cash, but it is a real asset," Mr. Lamb said."

Now it looks as though the cities, to mollify the unions, will start to shift revenue from whatever it was used for to the union pension funds. That money was being used someplace and now that someplace won't have it anymore. So what will the city do? Will they perhaps cut the budget to offset this lose of revenue? What do you think?

"Councilman Ricky Burgess said the city at some point might have to raise taxes to compensate for money that the parking authority might never provide."

Well, there you have it. YOU are going to have to reach deeper into your pocket, even though most working people are at the bottom all ready and just about to bust through it, and fund the lavish retirement of your local garbage man, sewer worker or some other "public servant". Looks as though all the money the unions spent buying off politicians all those years is paying off.

So, when you're in your '70's greeting the retired dog catcher as he walks into to WalMart to buy that big screen TV, just be happy that you have a job and that the price of the dog food you're living on hasn't gone up recently.

And rest easy knowing that your tax dollars, from your job at WalMart, are making it possible for your "servants" to enjoy their golden years in comfort.

I get all warm and fuzzy just thinkin' about it.