Yes, Virginia, Our State Pension Fund is $20 Billion in the Hole

As part of my continued and ongoing public service to demonstrate to Americans in both the private and public sector that the pensions they are counting on to support them in their "golden" years will not be there for them when they retire, here is another scary such story out of the Old Dominion:

Virginia's retirement system, considered fiscally sound just two years ago, is now $20 billion short of what it owes public employees, a massive liability that threatens the fund's stability as Gov. Bob McDonnell prepares to send his first budget request to the General Assembly.

State lawmakers struggling to cover multibillion dollar holes in the state's budget since 2008 reduced what they were paying into the pension fund, shorting it by $1.6 billion this year alone, the Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, a bipartisan government oversight panel, reported Monday. At the same time, the fund's investments soured. That one-two punch means the gap between how much the fund has and what it owes grew from $12 billion in 2009 to $20 billion in 2011, a 69 percent increase over the two years.

With McDonnell's backing, lawmakers lowered already flailing pension contributions by $620 million in 2010 for the two-year budget ending June 30, 2012. There is no minimum requirement for the state to make toward retirement benefits, and since 1992 the General Assembly has fully funded its obligations to the fund for public employees only four times and just twice for teachers. Auditors recommended lawmakers establish a minimum contribution level.

If you are an employee of the state of Virginia, you should take heart that this is just a microcosm of what is happening all around the country every day...short-sighted and craven politicians kicking the can down the road by kicking the shit out of your very future. And just to be clear, this is NOT a partisan issue, as Virginia has been run by governors and legislative majorities of both parties at various times since 1992.

I would say you should get angry and demand that this kind of bullshit be stopped, but it is far too late for that at this point. The time to get angry was about 30 years ago when that Hollywood rodeo clown we installed in the White House first started sodomizing the working and middle classes without even the courtesy of giving them a reach around. But hey, tens of millions of them voted for it, and have continued to vote for it in every election since then, so maybe they really don't have any right to complain about it.


Bonus: Bill slams Reagan, "Let's put him UNDER Mt. Rushmore"