Florida governor wants cheaper state pensions

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

Rick Scott, a Republican, related those contributions and other changes, such as putting new state workers into 401k-like plans in place of more costly traditional pensions, would save Florida .8 billion upward of two years. He wants state workers to contribute 5 percent of pay on this account that pensions.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scott is due to make his first budget proposal without ceasing Monday and the billion plan is expected to include tax cuts. He declared in a preview that he proposed eliminating cost-of-living increases as antidote to work done after July 1, 2011.

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

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

Speaking to reporters in Tallahassee forward Tuesday, Scott said the current pension system will become increasingly afflicting if no changes are made as baby boomers hit retirement st~ of life.

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

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

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

(Additional reporting through Michael Peltier in Tallahassee; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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Obama seeks “answerable” budget to curb deficit

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

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

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

“Beyond simply reducing government spending, the president emphasized the want to reform and reorganize the government so it operates smarter and greater quantity efficiently,” the White House said in a readout of the set of encased drawers meeting.

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

Obama is anxious that in ~ degree 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 lot will be released on February 14 and “will provide a responsible 10-year path for reining in the deficit,” Obama told his closet. 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. administration — which is adding to the towering national debt.

Republicans, who won rule of the House of Representatives in November elections after campaigning in favor of sterner steps to control spending, warned that the White House may not ~ your way far enough.

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

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

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

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

Senator Jeff Sessions, the senior Republican in c~tinuance the Senate Budget Committee, told Reuters that “you absolutely could conclude that” and that he would support such a short-spell hike “as long as there are serious discussions” without ceasing long-term spending cuts.

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

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NY’s Cuomo slashes spending, freezes taxes in budget

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

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed laying against nearly 10,000 state workers and cutting billions from education and Medicaid being of the cl~s who he laid out his first budget on Tuesday, designed to choke a billion deficit.

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

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

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

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

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

Cuomo’s budget proposal includes spending cuts of .5 billion from nurture and billion from Medicaid, as opposed to previous automatic increases of 13 percent that would own 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 piteous states and cities across the country.

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

His austere approach to his first parcel prompted a comparison to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has emerged to the degree that a national Republican leader by promoting spending cuts and putting a surpass on taxes.

Cuomo “is taking a page from Christie, which is interesting given that he’s a Democrat. I suppose it’s a positive if it materializes,” said Evan Rourke, a portfolio manager 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, still, might reject the spending cuts. Democrats may also seek to derail Cuomo’s contrive to let expire a temporary income tax surcharge on millionaires, admitting any Assembly bill to extend the tax would likely die in the Senate.

New York City would subsist hit particularly hard under the budget proposal, with a 0 the public reduction in school aid, though the cut is less than the billion subjugation 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 upright the beginning of what I would expect would be a spun out negotiation.”