LETTERS

Taxpayers have nothing to do with public pensions

To the editor:

In response to Glenn Cook's Sunday column, "How much do we pay people to not work?":

You don't pay anyone anything. The Public Employees' Retirement System is a fund paid into by the employee and employer. Same concept as a 401(k). Benefits paid out of PERS are from the fund, not from the taxpayer.

Never forget, though, fact and logic are no match for misinformation and emotion.

And please take some time and explain why it is relevant to know the names of individuals and their pension amounts? Your only goal there is to cause people grief. You are trying to rouse public condemnation against individual persons, not a system.

Shameful and irresponsible, as we have come to expect.

Roy Scott

Las Vegas

Tebow done

To the editor:

Now that the ticks have tocked on Tebow Time, perhaps the Lord can get back to more important issues than football. I always found it a bit sanctimonious and not quite Christian that Tim Tebow only did his freestyle genuflection after he did something well.

Seems to me those who seek the Lord's guidance are also fond of doing so in the darkest of hours (think of the role model who tosses an interception or fumbles and then seeks God's shoulder).

Kent Wallace

LAS VEGAS

Baseball blackouts

To the editor:

I could not agree more with the letter from William C. Dwyer on Major League Baseball's TV blackouts (Review-Journal, Monday).

When I lived in Illinois, I was told by baseball Commissioner Bud Selig that my area, Rockford, could be claimed by only one team. I was equal distance from Milwaukee and Chicago. We were claimed by Milwaukee, so no Chicago games were blacked out from the Chicago area.

So, now living in Las Vegas, we are claimed by six different areas. Who drew these boundaries and cannot count to one?

For this reason I will not be renewing the MLB package with the cable provider this year. I missed too many games last summer that I wanted to watch.

So Mr. Selig is helping to hold our economy down in this way. The cable provider loses money from subscribers who are not renewing because of their disgust with his boundary lines. Thanks, Bud.

Linda Rye

Las Vegas

Failed commies

To the editor:

Nadia Romeo's Saturday letter, "Greedy rich," was misleading, inaccurate and incendiary. She says, "Corporations pay little or no taxes." That is not true. Look up how much total money goes into the U.S. Treasury from corporations. And people might be interested to know that the dividends corporations pay out are taxed to the individual receiving the dividend. In most cases, the investment a person puts into the stock of a corporation was already taxed when the person earned it.

Ms. Romeo expressed adoration for communists and Bolsheviks. She may be interested to know that, in my lifetime, the communists/Bolsheviks/socialists have killed more than 100 million of their own people trying to make that system work -- and still it failed.

Charles Gould

Las Vegas

Comments

Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.

1. Joseph.Olson Jan. 19, 2012 | 10:07 p.m. Report Abuse

   So bghs1986 how much reduced. Are you saying that new PERS employees should only be allowed to get like $100/mo? Remember these people are NOT paying into Social Security so that is not an option for them. The pension is the only thing they have got.

2. zodite007 Jan. 19, 2012 | 1:31 p.m. Report Abuse

   Roy Scott is right. The RJ has been spreading some misinformation over the past several years about pensions. They've insinuated that the majority of public safety employees retire with lush salaries many of which are in the $100,000 range. Complete bull dump. The average PERS salary is $29,800 for public employees, $49,000 for Public safety. This usually is after 25 years and they have to look forward to death soon after due to various complex reasons (life expectancy lower for public safety). RJ is garbage on this topic.

3. bghs1986 Jan. 18, 2012 | 10:10 a.m. Report Abuse

   @vote them out...."STOP SPREADING LIES BGHS1986." What lie did I spread? Not a single thing I wrote was not accurate. Taxpayers are on the hook for any PERS shortfall. Did I say they have paid? I did not? Taxpayers are funding all the contributions to PERS, as every dime submitted was originally raised through taxation. I have two relatives currently receiving their pensions and I have no issue with those who get what they were promised. However NRS 286.015 states the purpose of PERS was "make government employment attractive to qualified employees in various categories of service and which will encourage these employees to remain in government service for such periods of time as to give the public employer full benefit of the training and experience." That was before public sector salaries skyrocketed and overshadowed those in the private sector. PERS for new employees needs to be seriously reduced.

4. vote them out Jan. 18, 2012 | 7:58 a.m. Report Abuse

   When were the taxpayers required to pay the difference into PERS when it didnt meet its 8% assumed return? Answer: NEVER! STOP SPREADING LIES BGHS1986!

5. vote them out Jan. 18, 2012 | 7:56 a.m. Report Abuse

   Bghs1986, guess what the average return on the stock market the last 50 years is.....8%! So I dont think that PERS is using an unrealistic number. In fact the return the last 2 years has been well over 25%. Now hurry up with that happy meal.

6. youknowit Jan. 18, 2012 | 2:11 a.m. Report Abuse

   PERS is funded by taxpayers. And you will all pay for my retirement.

7. bghs1986 Jan. 18, 2012 | 1:57 a.m. Report Abuse

   Roy Scott tries to tell us that PERS operated on the "Same concept as a 401(k). " Yet he doesn't bother to tell us that, unlike a 401(k), PERS operates on the assumption that the fund will receive at least an 8% return on its investment. When a 401(k)'s investments lose value, so does the 401(k). When PERS doesn't receive a return of 8% the difference is met with taxpayer monies. Scott is delusional if he thinks that anyone will believe that even his PERS contributions are not funded by taxpayer dollars. Where does he think the money these employees earn comes from. It comes from the taxpayers. How can he even entertain the idea that taxpayers have nothing to do with PERS. We have everything to do with it,

8. NFH62 Jan. 18, 2012 | 12:23 a.m. Report Abuse

   I work for one of the S Nevada libraries. We are covered by PERS. Do you demand retirees getting Social Security benefits to declare what they get? Of course not! Then why are you asking this of PERS receipients? Same analogy. I pay into PERS, not Social Security. That kind of information should be private, just like Social Security.

9. Joseph.Olson Jan. 17, 2012 | 10:40 p.m. Report Abuse

   This pension argument is just another ploy to lower that wages paid. But, those rich who are in power now are going to have difficulty staying there if there is nobody who can afford to buy their product. I have several big ticket items I will not purchase at this time because I don't believe I will continue to have a job. Thus, if the demand side of economics fails then the "job creators" will not continue make money. End of story.

10. youknowit Jan. 17, 2012 | 9:58 p.m. Report Abuse

    I'm a taxpayer and you don't see me crying about having to help pay for these deserving retirements. It has nothing to do with the fact that I pay into PERS from both sides. Employer=taxpayer=me. Employee=me.

Read All Comments