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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Virginia Retirement Crisis is Manufactured?

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Thursday, October 27, 2011   

RICHMOND, Va. - With Virginia lawmakers looking for further cuts in state spending, some have turned their attention to the Virginia Retirement System, the pension fund that covers state employees and public school teachers.

But are teachers, their salaries and pensions the right area to consider?

Some, including retired Staunton school teacher Bea Morris, say it's the wrong move, and she is tired of what she calls misinformation about the pension system.

Employees are not the cause of any shortfalls in the pension system, Morris says, and teachers, who devote their careers to educating the state's children, are in one of the lowest paid professions. Because of that, she thinks, they are unfairly targeted.

"The General Assembly is cutting corners wherever they can cut them, and I think they see the teachers as dispensable because we're not big campaign donors, and therefore, it doesn't matter whether they keep promises to us or not."

For 17 of the past 20 years, Morris says, the General Assembly has not funded the Virginia Retirement System properly. That system now is 65 percent funded. State lawmakers withheld a $620 million payment to the fund last year to help balance the budget.

Some legislators blame the unfunded retirement system for the state's budget issues and say funds aren't available to pay teacher pensions. Michael Cassidy, president of The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, questions that claim.

"The long-term pension shortfalls are not the cause of our current state fiscal problems. Our fiscal challenges over the past four years are centered on the impacts of 'The Great Recession.' "

Cassidy warns that if legislators make drastic cuts or changes to the pension system, it could imperil Virginia's economic recovery.


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