there is a lot of truth in the article...but i do take issue with the blanket application of fact/belief used by the author. not all public pensioners benefit from the benevolent provisions described in the article.

both my husband and i are recipients of public pensions...but we do not reap the benes described by the author. each of us pays toward our medical/health benefits and neither of us benefits from automatic pension increases - nj is contemplating a 9% cut back, in fact...not what we were "guaranteed"!

nor does the author indicate that many public pensioners spent many years earning far less than their private employer counterparts...those now retiring from public service only in the past decade began to earn comparable salaries...but mostly due to the shrinking economy in the private sector and negotiated contracts in the public sector.

nor does the author take into account the disparity of pay structures and cost of living in the various geographic regions of the country and fields of employment. not all pensions put their recipients in the lap of luxury.

as a state employee in the human resources field i was there to work the system, find the loopholes, process the paperwork for appointed individuals with fewer educational and experience credentials than myself...it is what i was paid to do...along with insuring the prosperity of the routine, run-of the-mill employee who was the real brains in how to keep getting their work processed and often had to have their union rights enforced for them...despite the benevolence of their employer.

i heard the pleas and the screams of constituents and their representatives who requested as well as demanded more services, faster respons times, yada, yada, yada. well, the only way that could happen was to add more people to process, buy more technology, retrain existing employees. unfortunately, none of that was free!

so i ask that when you and/or others complain about the cost of supporting your public employees in their retirement, please remember that they are the people who issued your professional license, responded to and investigated your consumer complaint, enforced the statutes/laws/regulations your representatives developed in response to more of the tax-payers wants and demands, who ensured your safety from the incarcerated, who processed your reimbursements, yada, yada, yada. these employees are not part of the auto industry, the financial institutions, the insurance industry, the medical field.

there are changes that need to be made, but they should not impact the public employee who worked for you more than they worked for a municipality or a state.

stepping down from my soapbox now