Florida governor wants cheaper state pensions

MIAMI (Reuters) – Florida’s fresh Tea Party-backed governor said on Tuesday he wants state workers notwithstanding the first time to contribute to the state pension system to remedy plug a .5 billion gap in the next state budget.

Rick Scott, a Republican, declared those contributions and other changes, such as putting new state workers into 401k-like plans in lieu of more costly traditional pensions, would save Florida .8 billion across two years. He wants state workers to contribute 5 percent of pay as antidote to pensions.

“We must bring Florida in line with the particular sector and nearly every other state in the country by requiring regulation workers to contribute toward their own retirement,” Scott said in a intelligence release.

Florida’s 572,000 state and local-government workers at this time see no paycheck deductions for a fixed-benefit pension program, that supports 319,000 retirees. Governments in the fourth most populous U.S. explain now pay between 9 percent and 20 percent of each operative’s salary for pensions.

Unlike some other big states contention with large pension obligations, such as Illinois and California, Florida’s 5 billion allowance fund is relatively strong financially and Florida’s debt is meridian-rated by leading credit agencies.

But Florida’s once-booming regulation was hard hit by the 2007-2009 recession. It remains some epicenter of America’s housing crisis and has a 12 percent unemployment asperse compared with the national jobless rate of 9.4 percent.

The Republican mayor of Miami-Dade County, home to Miami and the body politic’s most populous county, faces a recall vote on March 15 in interest because of an increase in local property tax rates needed to place by the post a 0 million budget deficit.

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California’s renovated governor, Democrat Jerry Brown, said on Monday he was open to changes in commonwealth workers pensions as a way to close that state’s billion assortment deficit.

Scott is due to make his first budget proposal in successi~ Monday and the billion plan is expected to include tax cuts. He afore~ in a preview that he proposed eliminating cost-of-living increases during the term of work done after July 1, 2011.

The governor recommended ending admissions to a grandeur program that allows some workers to retire, defer pension payments with a guaranteed investment return, and continue working for the state towards as many as eight additional years.

During the campaign and following his choice in November, Scott repeatedly said that Florida’s retirement classification needed to be adapted to a modern marketplace in which employees take their privacy benefits with them when they change jobs.

Speaking to reporters in Tallahassee without ceasing Tuesday, Scott said the current pension system will become increasingly onerous if no changes are made as baby boomers hit retirement period.

“If you have a plan in the private sector, you are usually participating, you’re contributing,” Scott said. “I speculate it’s only fair that those who participate in the dignity pension plan contribute.”

Florida lawmakers face a .5 billion governmental estimate gap going into the fiscal 2012 budget year starting on July 1 while increased healthcare cost and reductions in federal stimulus funds combine to compel more pressure on them to cut costs. The legislature, which be obliged to approve changes to pensions, convenes on March 8.

Employee groups, including Florida’s largest teachers unification, are expected to fight the proposed pension changes.

(Additional reporting ~ the agency of Michael Peltier in Tallahassee; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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Obama seeks “amenable” budget to curb deficit

http://www.nathanhamm.net/news/obama-seeks-liable-budget-to-curb-deficit/ http://www.nathanhamm.net/news/obama-seeks-amenable-budget-to-curb-deficit/#comments Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:01:02 +0000 Nathan Hamm News Budget bridle. deficit' Obama responsible seeks http://www.nathanhamm.net/news/obama-seeks-liable-budget-to-curb-deficit/ WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama steady Tuesday spelled out that his upcoming budget will seek a “accountable” path to reducing U.S. debts over time, while lawmakers pushed concerning a summit to tackle the problem. Obama discussed “tough choices” by … Continue reading →

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Tuesday spelled out that his upcoming budget will seek a “responsible” path to reducing U.S. debts over time, while lawmakers pushed with respect to a summit to tackle the problem.

Obama discussed “tough choices” by his cabinet to be laid out in the administration’s bundle proposal for 2012, alongside investment he wants to spur hiring and growing.

“Beyond simply reducing government spending, the president emphasized the poverty to reform and reorganize the government so it operates smarter and else efficiently,” the White House said in a readout of the small room meeting.

On Capitol Hill, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad repeated his requisition for a White House-Congress summit on long-term deficit retrenchment. He cautioned that his committee might have to craft one attached its own if this option was ignored.

Obama is anxious that a single one steps to confront the country’s fiscal challenges do not sap the foundations of a fragile U.S. economic recovery amid unemployment stuck above 9 percent.

The package will be released on February 14 and “will provide a amenable 10-year path for reining in the deficit,” Obama told his collection . The budget covers a period of 10 years.

Action is needed to harness a budget deficit estimated at .48 trillion in fiscal 2011 — or 9.8 percent of the U.S. economy — which is adding to the towering national debt.

Republicans, who won check of the House of Representatives in November elections after campaigning with regard to sterner steps to control spending, warned that the White House may not pass far enough.

The federal debt is expected to hit a .3 trillion ceiling imposed ~ the agency of Congress by the end of March.

Republicans are expected to solicit concessions from Obama’s Democrats in return for voting to enlarge the borrowing limit, which is necessary to avoid a damaging default through the U.S. government.

A summit, Conrad said, should get below way before Congress debates a debt limit increase “because it’s risky to practice the debt limit as leverage because of our standing in global fiscal markets.”

Conrad has said he would not support a extended-term increase in U.S. borrowing authority if there was ~t any progress toward reducing long-term budget deficits. That would leave undetermined the possibility of Congress considering one or more short-term, obstruct-gap debt ceiling increases.

Senator Jeff Sessions, the senior Republican attached the Senate Budget Committee, told Reuters that “you absolutely could be enough that” and that he would support such a short-season hike “as long as there are serious discussions” in c~tinuance long-term spending cuts.

(Additional reporting by Rachelle Younglai; Editing by Sandra Maler and Christopher Wilson)

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NY’s Cuomo slashes expenditure, freezes taxes in budget

http://www.nathanhamm.net/news/nys-cuomo-slashes-spending-freezes-taxes-in-budget/ http://www.nathanhamm.net/news/nys-cuomo-slashes-expenditure-freezes-taxes-in-budget/#comments Tue, 01 Feb 2011 23:01:01 +0000 Nathan Hamm News Budget Cuomo freezes NY's slashes expenditure taxes http://www.nathanhamm.net/news/nys-cuomo-slashes-spending-freezes-taxes-in-collection/ NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed laying away nearly 10,000 state workers and cutting billions from education and Medicaid considered in the state of he laid out his first budget on Tuesday, designed to grapple a billion deficit. The Democratic … Continue reading →

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed laying from nearly 10,000 state workers and cutting billions from education and Medicaid at the same time that he laid out his first budget on Tuesday, designed to shut up a billion deficit.

The Democratic governor proposed no new or increased taxes in the 2.9 billion lot plan, which would shrink the current budget ending March 31 ~ the agency of 2.7 percent. If the budget plan holds, it would notice the first spending decrease since 1997.

“New York state is functionally bankrupt. We have to think in terms of restructuring because New York doesn’t operate anymore,” Cuomo told legislators, who must approve the budget device.

New York is one of many states battling multibillion-dollar deficits exactly largely to the sluggish economy, which has created a nationwide financial crisis that has added risk to the historically stable .8 trillion U.S. municipal bond market.

Cuomo said New York’s finances have been hammered by a budget process that he labeled a “sham,” by automatic increases for expensive programs such as education and Medicaid, the body politic-federal health plan for the poor that led to runaway spending.

“In a down economy, this is a death spiral and that’s where we are now,” Cuomo said. “If the state continues doing which we’re doing, we’re heading down the high~ to ruin.”

Cuomo’s budget proposal includes spending cuts of .5 billion from teaching and billion from Medicaid, as opposed to previous automatic increases of 13 percent that would be obliged amounted to additional spending of .85 billion each.

The austere budget plan could enhance Cuomo’s standing as a fiscal conservatory nationally at a time when growing deficits and dwindling tax receipts are moving states and cities across the country.

Cuomo had vowed to acquire New York “a business-friendly state” shortly after vexation office on January 1.

His austere approach to his first store prompted a comparison to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has emerged viewed like a national Republican leader by promoting spending cuts and putting a pitch on taxes.

Cuomo “is taking a page from Christie, that is interesting given that he’s a Democrat. I speculate it’s a positive if it materializes,” said Evan Rourke, a portfolio superintendent with Eaton Vance in New York.

The Cuomo budget, which requires law-making approval, could strengthen his position with the Republican-controlled Senate.

The Democratic-controlled Assembly, though, might reject the spending cuts. Democrats may also seek to derail Cuomo’s chalk out to let expire a temporary income tax surcharge on millionaires, though any Assembly bill to extend the tax would likely die in the Senate.

New York City would be hit particularly hard under the budget proposal, with a 0 the multitude reduction in school aid, though the cut is less than the billion mastery that Mayor Michael Bloomberg had feared. Bloomberg had said a billion divide would translate into 15,000 teacher layoffs.

“There’s going to be balancing the budget on the backs of local communities,” before-mentioned Howard Cure, managing director for municipal research at Evercore Wealth Management LLC in New York. “This is honorable the beginning of what I would expect would be a dilatory negotiation.”