Letter: Truth is coming out on state pension plan

Posted
Over the past several months, the media has finally begun to report on the condition of our state retirement system. The legislature has formed a joint committee on pension reform to find out what can be done to fix a system that is horribly broken. When he took office, Treasurer Curtis Loftis found that so much money was being wasted by paying outrageous fees to people on Wall Street and that other parts of the system were poorly managed. What Treasurer Loftis uncovered made some politicians nervous because they don’t want to be held responsible for creating this mess. But they did. The Good Ole’ Boys in Columbia, took money that should have been funding the pension and spent it on other things while claiming not to raise taxes. Now, we have a pension debt that exceeds $21 billion. They didn’t tell us that a tax increase would have to come later to repair a pension plan that they have under-funded for years. Taxpayers will now have to pay for the mismanagement of the pension plan. They, along with members of the plan, will be asked to fix a problem that they had no part in causing. They should have listened to Curtis Loftis. MARIE HARDY DUKES Turbeville