We've Moved- Please Come See Us

Check out the new home for New Hampshire Watchdog:

NewHampshireWatchdog.org

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Massachusetts reforms pensions, but not New Hampshire

The Union Leader editorial page wonders why New Hampshire lawmakers can't fix the state's public pension system when their Massachusetts colleagues have already approved much more sweeping reforms:

The Massachusetts changes would exclude from pension calculations the value of state-provided housing and cars, remove the rule that allows employees to get credit for a full year's pay if they work a single day in that year, eliminate pension credit for volunteer work and prevent legislators from getting extra pension pay when they lose an election.

That's a long list of reforms, and we left out some for brevity's sake. The New Hampshire changes are not so broad. The House passed changes that would make new police officers and firefighters work an extra five years before retirement, bump the retirement age from 45 to 50, and allow them to get half-pay upon retirement at age 50. The changes would save about $30 million a year.

No comments:

Post a Comment