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What do you call a proposal that breaks promises to city workers, destroys their family’s hard earned retirement security, lowers the city’s tax base, harms our fragile economy and actually requires the city of Cincinnati to pay out more in retiree funds?
In this case, the tiny group of wealthy financiers, tea party supporters and out of town petitioners sponsoring this ridiculous proposal are calling it by the misleading name of “Cincinnatians for Pension Reform” (CPR). However, unlike the medical procedure by the same name, this one would kill its patient!
WHO IS BEHIND CPR?
If you said; “It can’t be Cincinnatians, our own home town folks would never push something this bad,” then you are actually right on the money!
What about the 7,000 signatures filed by the so-called “Cincinnatians for Pension Reform?” Actually, that phony group paid nearly $70,000 to the California Company Arno Petition Consultants to bring in and put up out of town petitioners in order for them to collect the signatures needed to qualify for ballot status.
Tim Burke, chairman of the Hamilton County Board of Elections said financial backing for the proposal is “shady” and “difficult to verify because election laws allow these groups to use nonprofit groups to mask the direct source of contributions.” It wasn’t easy, but we have learned where much of the funding for CPR has come from so far.
Paul Jacob, of the Virginia based extremist tea party group, Liberty Initiative Fund, which has funded similar anti-retiree measures in other cities, has put over $81,000 into CPR thus far. The conservative California based National Taxpayer’s Union has put in another $52,000.
If this is who is pushing CPR, a so-called pension “reform,” we ought to look at what Mr. Jacob actually thinks about our precious retirement security. Is he really on the side of regular people?
Jacob stated that Social Security, our nation’s most important federal program, responsible for keeping millions of American retirees out of poverty, is “fraudulent,” “a Ponzi scheme” (‘Pensions & Promises,’ townhall.com, 12/18/11) and “a system based on swindle.” (‘The Great Social Security Swindle,’ 10/21/07)
This past January 6th, in the same publication, he stated how he would deal with Social Security, stating that “We need to make clear to everyone Social Security and the programs designed to help the poor really hurt them the most. When it becomes clear to all that they are the ones worst served by Social Security, the whole house of cards will come crashing down.”
Proponents of CPR claim it is designed to keep our city out of bankruptcy. On this topic, Jacob said “’In need of bankruptcy’ is not exactly our era’s marching cry, but perhaps it should be. Bankruptcy is about failure. That’s why it’s needed!” (‘Common Sense,” 11/23/08)
So, on one side we have out of state financiers that want to kill Social Security and see our cities in bankruptcy, phony front groups, out of town petitioners paid by a California company and the extremist Tea Party. Who is on the other side?
WHO OPPOSES CPR?
The answer is just about everyone else!
The opposition to CPR is both non-partisan and bi-partisan. The Faith Alliance, representing a wide coalition of many different churches and communities of faith has taken a strong stand against CPR. Both major mayoral candidates, Roxanne Qualls and John Cranley, oppose CPR and Cincinnati’s city council voted unanimously to oppose it. All unions, representing workers of all stripes, public and private workers, as well production, service, craft and building trades workers, are all against this horrible proposal. The Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans (OARA), the organization of actual retirees who’d be hard hit by CPR is working to defeat it.
WHY IS THERE A ‘CRISIS?’
According to the out of state financiers and Tea Party extremists it is the greedy public workers who are grabbing our public tax money so they can live high on the hog that caused a “crisis.” That’s why we need to break our promises of retiree security to them and their families, and If we just do that, they say, we’ll save the city and live happily ever after!
Economic experts, as well as regular people, say different!
First of all, the economic crises of 2001 & 2008 created problems of debt not just for Cincinnati, but for every city in our nation.
The last two state budgets have included huge cuts to all Ohio cities, including Cincinnati. Years of giving tax abatements to businesses have also badly hurt our city’s finances and undermined the public retirement system. Outsourcing public services, like that of the Fountain Square operations and public golf courses, have required the city to undermine public services, pay non-public workers who are not paying into the city’s retirement system. It also undermined our city’s tax base.
Public, as well as private pension funds used to be required to be fully funded. Unfortunately, congress changed that under the influence of huge corporations, who argued that pension funds were “unproductive” and that if they could just be “freed up and used productively” pensions would be “more secure” and “better funded.” Cincinnati, like many other cities, used many of those funds, undermining the city’s pension fund.
While nobody likes taxes, sometimes when a wide variety of pressures undercut a city’s ability to function, tax levies might actually be needed. Whether that is the case in Cincinnati’s situation or not, the absolute fetish of certain politicians who have been running the city for so long, to never, ever even consider these options and to immediately attack anyone who might even raise the idea, made any ability to even talk about strengthening our city’s tax base literally impossible.
Cincinnatians know that these problems are real. We need to come together to find ways to actually resolve them. CPR is no solution! It would make the situation much worse.
WHAT WOULD CPR ACTUALLY DO?
This proposal, if passed, would do many things. None of them, however, include “saving the city from bankruptcy!”
First and foremost, for the city workers, being pushed from real pensions into 401ks would mean being thrown onto the tender mercies of the stock market. Anyone who had their retirement funds in one of those things when the economy nose-dived know what that means. According to a recent joint study by the Employee Benefits Research Institute and the Investment Company Institute found that U.S. workers with 401ks lost on the average, 24.3% of their invested funds in 2008, the year of the last stock market downturn. That means exchanging retiree security for insecurity!
That created a massive loss of Cincinnatian’s buying power, translating into huge losses for businesses, especially small businesses, and yet another blow to Cincinnati’s tax base.
The city would be required to start buying into Social Security if CPR passes, which it does not do now. That would require payments of 6.2%, far higher than the 1.8% the city currently pays into the city retirement system, a massive increase, not a savings, for city expenditures.
City workers would lose the disability retirement benefits and death benefits they now have, another blow to city workers, their families and the economy, again undermining the city’s tax base.
By closing the city’s retirement plan, Cincinnati would have to cover the $862 debt the city has in the next 20 years instead of the current 30 years, a new terrible burden on the city.
All of the above means far less retirement security, more, not less, city debt, multiple blows to our economy which will force more people onto public aid services, again, harming, not helping, the city.
What it would actually be is yet another blow to working families! The Wall Street financiers who run the 401ks would once again make out like the bandits they are, gambling with our retirement savings on the stock market, while regular families again are duped and take yet another horrible hit to their already weakened financial situations.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
We can do a lot! The people of Cincinnati, are really the ones who have the final say! Our friends and neighbors who are police and firefighters saw last year that when these wealthy outside interests “exclude” them from their organized attacks on other people’s retirement security, it is actually only a way to divide us up and that their hard earned benefits will be the next target! Our friends and neighbors, regular folks, water and sewer workers, the folks that keep our streets clean and pick up our garbage, keep the street lights on and keep our parks beautiful, people that keep our food safe and the nurses that help our kids at school, are NOT the ones who created any “crisis.” We can stand up with them, refuse to be divided once again, one against another, by wealthy outside special interests!
We can talk to our family, friends, neighbors and co-workers and let them know what a scam CPR really is. If you belong to a church, veteran’s organization, neighborhood group, block watch, PTA, union, sports or social club, speak out and let them all know what they stand to lose if CPR passes. Finally, if you’d like to take up the fight to defeat CPR, working with retirees who are already working on this important campaign, contact Bentley Davis, State Coordinator for the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans, at 513-827-1832 or Email
In this case, the tiny group of wealthy financiers, tea party supporters and out of town petitioners sponsoring this ridiculous proposal are calling it by the misleading name of “Cincinnatians for Pension Reform” (CPR). However, unlike the medical procedure by the same name, this one would kill its patient!
WHO IS BEHIND CPR?
If you said; “It can’t be Cincinnatians, our own home town folks would never push something this bad,” then you are actually right on the money!
What about the 7,000 signatures filed by the so-called “Cincinnatians for Pension Reform?” Actually, that phony group paid nearly $70,000 to the California Company Arno Petition Consultants to bring in and put up out of town petitioners in order for them to collect the signatures needed to qualify for ballot status.
Tim Burke, chairman of the Hamilton County Board of Elections said financial backing for the proposal is “shady” and “difficult to verify because election laws allow these groups to use nonprofit groups to mask the direct source of contributions.” It wasn’t easy, but we have learned where much of the funding for CPR has come from so far.
Paul Jacob, of the Virginia based extremist tea party group, Liberty Initiative Fund, which has funded similar anti-retiree measures in other cities, has put over $81,000 into CPR thus far. The conservative California based National Taxpayer’s Union has put in another $52,000.
If this is who is pushing CPR, a so-called pension “reform,” we ought to look at what Mr. Jacob actually thinks about our precious retirement security. Is he really on the side of regular people?
Jacob stated that Social Security, our nation’s most important federal program, responsible for keeping millions of American retirees out of poverty, is “fraudulent,” “a Ponzi scheme” (‘Pensions & Promises,’ townhall.com, 12/18/11) and “a system based on swindle.” (‘The Great Social Security Swindle,’ 10/21/07)
This past January 6th, in the same publication, he stated how he would deal with Social Security, stating that “We need to make clear to everyone Social Security and the programs designed to help the poor really hurt them the most. When it becomes clear to all that they are the ones worst served by Social Security, the whole house of cards will come crashing down.”
Proponents of CPR claim it is designed to keep our city out of bankruptcy. On this topic, Jacob said “’In need of bankruptcy’ is not exactly our era’s marching cry, but perhaps it should be. Bankruptcy is about failure. That’s why it’s needed!” (‘Common Sense,” 11/23/08)
So, on one side we have out of state financiers that want to kill Social Security and see our cities in bankruptcy, phony front groups, out of town petitioners paid by a California company and the extremist Tea Party. Who is on the other side?
WHO OPPOSES CPR?
The answer is just about everyone else!
The opposition to CPR is both non-partisan and bi-partisan. The Faith Alliance, representing a wide coalition of many different churches and communities of faith has taken a strong stand against CPR. Both major mayoral candidates, Roxanne Qualls and John Cranley, oppose CPR and Cincinnati’s city council voted unanimously to oppose it. All unions, representing workers of all stripes, public and private workers, as well production, service, craft and building trades workers, are all against this horrible proposal. The Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans (OARA), the organization of actual retirees who’d be hard hit by CPR is working to defeat it.
WHY IS THERE A ‘CRISIS?’
According to the out of state financiers and Tea Party extremists it is the greedy public workers who are grabbing our public tax money so they can live high on the hog that caused a “crisis.” That’s why we need to break our promises of retiree security to them and their families, and If we just do that, they say, we’ll save the city and live happily ever after!
Economic experts, as well as regular people, say different!
First of all, the economic crises of 2001 & 2008 created problems of debt not just for Cincinnati, but for every city in our nation.
The last two state budgets have included huge cuts to all Ohio cities, including Cincinnati. Years of giving tax abatements to businesses have also badly hurt our city’s finances and undermined the public retirement system. Outsourcing public services, like that of the Fountain Square operations and public golf courses, have required the city to undermine public services, pay non-public workers who are not paying into the city’s retirement system. It also undermined our city’s tax base.
Public, as well as private pension funds used to be required to be fully funded. Unfortunately, congress changed that under the influence of huge corporations, who argued that pension funds were “unproductive” and that if they could just be “freed up and used productively” pensions would be “more secure” and “better funded.” Cincinnati, like many other cities, used many of those funds, undermining the city’s pension fund.
While nobody likes taxes, sometimes when a wide variety of pressures undercut a city’s ability to function, tax levies might actually be needed. Whether that is the case in Cincinnati’s situation or not, the absolute fetish of certain politicians who have been running the city for so long, to never, ever even consider these options and to immediately attack anyone who might even raise the idea, made any ability to even talk about strengthening our city’s tax base literally impossible.
Cincinnatians know that these problems are real. We need to come together to find ways to actually resolve them. CPR is no solution! It would make the situation much worse.
WHAT WOULD CPR ACTUALLY DO?
This proposal, if passed, would do many things. None of them, however, include “saving the city from bankruptcy!”
First and foremost, for the city workers, being pushed from real pensions into 401ks would mean being thrown onto the tender mercies of the stock market. Anyone who had their retirement funds in one of those things when the economy nose-dived know what that means. According to a recent joint study by the Employee Benefits Research Institute and the Investment Company Institute found that U.S. workers with 401ks lost on the average, 24.3% of their invested funds in 2008, the year of the last stock market downturn. That means exchanging retiree security for insecurity!
That created a massive loss of Cincinnatian’s buying power, translating into huge losses for businesses, especially small businesses, and yet another blow to Cincinnati’s tax base.
The city would be required to start buying into Social Security if CPR passes, which it does not do now. That would require payments of 6.2%, far higher than the 1.8% the city currently pays into the city retirement system, a massive increase, not a savings, for city expenditures.
City workers would lose the disability retirement benefits and death benefits they now have, another blow to city workers, their families and the economy, again undermining the city’s tax base.
By closing the city’s retirement plan, Cincinnati would have to cover the $862 debt the city has in the next 20 years instead of the current 30 years, a new terrible burden on the city.
All of the above means far less retirement security, more, not less, city debt, multiple blows to our economy which will force more people onto public aid services, again, harming, not helping, the city.
What it would actually be is yet another blow to working families! The Wall Street financiers who run the 401ks would once again make out like the bandits they are, gambling with our retirement savings on the stock market, while regular families again are duped and take yet another horrible hit to their already weakened financial situations.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
We can do a lot! The people of Cincinnati, are really the ones who have the final say! Our friends and neighbors who are police and firefighters saw last year that when these wealthy outside interests “exclude” them from their organized attacks on other people’s retirement security, it is actually only a way to divide us up and that their hard earned benefits will be the next target! Our friends and neighbors, regular folks, water and sewer workers, the folks that keep our streets clean and pick up our garbage, keep the street lights on and keep our parks beautiful, people that keep our food safe and the nurses that help our kids at school, are NOT the ones who created any “crisis.” We can stand up with them, refuse to be divided once again, one against another, by wealthy outside special interests!
We can talk to our family, friends, neighbors and co-workers and let them know what a scam CPR really is. If you belong to a church, veteran’s organization, neighborhood group, block watch, PTA, union, sports or social club, speak out and let them all know what they stand to lose if CPR passes. Finally, if you’d like to take up the fight to defeat CPR, working with retirees who are already working on this important campaign, contact Bentley Davis, State Coordinator for the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans, at 513-827-1832 or Email