Republicans say if it is fixed lets break it with the FRS. (rough draft)

Spoiler alert continuing to make the teaching profession undesirable even if you hate unions is going to have consequences. You think public teacher salaries are low, check out how much teachers their people make.

I get it too, a full forty percent and growing people that enter the teaching profession don’t last five years but why make things worse which is what would happen if Florida did away with the Florida retirement System for new employees.

From Florida Employees.com

Florida Republicans once again are taking aim at the Florida Retirement System, arguing taxpayers can save billions of dollars by closing the huge public employee pension program to new members and offering them a 401k-style investment plan.

The proposal, which is expected to be offered by House members in the coming legislative session, would preserve line-of-duty death benefits for law enforcement officers and firefighters, a move designed to appease lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle who have opposed the idea in the past.

House Spokesman Michael Williams said a bill would be created by a committee, although House Speaker Steve Crisafulli has not decided which panel.

“We’re just not sure where it will originate,” Williams said.

The state retirement system serves 621,000 Florida schoolteachers, firefighters, sheriff’s office workers and employees across the state’s 32 executive agencies. Another 346,000 are receiving benefits in retirement, according to a Senate bill analysis performed in June.

The analysis showed the state system has about $138.6 billion to cover active and retired employees, and would need another $21.5 billion to be fully funded. Florida’s pension system is funded at about 86.6 percent, above the 80 percent level state economists have defined as a healthy fund.

http://floridapublicemployees.com/florida-retirement-system-to-be-targeted-once-again-by-republican-legislators/

Um, why, why mess with something that is working?

My bet is it because if new employees are taken out of the FRS its health will suffer and the legislature thinks they can shore that up by taking even more of public servants salary. People forget that all teachers and members of the FRS took a three percent pay cut during the great recession money that has not been made up for in better times. So be sure to thank a teacher for Florida’s budget surplus.

And for all you haters out there, things might be different if the FRS was in trouble but it’s not all this is, is the Florida Legislature trying to break something that is fixed while harming the teaching profession at the same time.