What do you think of when you think of Wisconsin? The Green Bay Packers? Fried cheese curds? Anti-worker (failed) presidential candidates? Here at Defined Benefit, when we hear Wisconsin we think of a fully-funded model pension system. Wisconsin’s pension system, thanks to responsible politicians, has been 100% funded for a decade and will continue to be into the future.
Although Wisconsin is a model system for other states to look to in how to design and manage a defined benefit pension that delivers retirement security for public workers, some misguided Wisconsin politicians just can’t resist the opportunity to fix something that ain’t broke.
Last week, State Senator Duey Stroebel began circulating two unnecessary bills that would hurt future Wisconsin retirees. The bills would:
- Raise the retirement age of all public workers – like firefighters and cops who risk their lives and work in physically grueling professions.
- Change the way benefits are calculated for workers – cutting the retirement for public servants like teachers and nurses.
Here are the facts:
- FACT: The Wisconsin Retirement System is 100% funded and has been for over a decade – these bills are a solution in search of a problem.
- FACT: Wisconsin’s pension system has some of the lowest costs in the country to taxpayers and workers alike.
- FACT: Now, some politicians want to raise the retirement age which could be devastating to the public safety workers who keep us safe.
- FACT: These same politicians also want to toy with the formula for calculating benefits, disrupting a complicated system.
Not to mention, these bills have surfaced more than once over the past several legislative sessions and have been rejected every time.
Strobel is going in search of a problem to fit a solution – one that is unnecessary and will harm retirement security for firefighters, teachers, nurses, and other public employees.
Join us in telling Wisconsin politicians: Hands off the Wisconsin Retirement System!
