2011 Governor's State of the State speeches: on Social Security

Scott Walker: Increase public employee pension payments to 5%

For years, our employees have been asked to do more with less. However, the difficult reality is that healthcare costs and pension costs have risen dramatically and that has created a benefit system that is simply unsustainable. Government benefits have grown while so many others in the private sector have seen their benefits adjusted in order to protect jobs. Currently, most state employees pay next to nothing from their salaries toward their pension, while the state's taxpayers pay more than $190 million each year on state employees' behalf. Similarly, most state workers only pay about 6% of their premium costs for their health care plan. Asking public employees to make a pension payment of just over 5% (which is about the national average) and a premium payment of 12% (which is about half of the national average) would save the state more than $30 million over three months. Most workers outside of government would love a deal like that--particularly if it means saving jobs. Source: 2011 Wisconsin State of the State Address Feb 1, 2011

Bob McDonnell: 5% additional retirement contribution from state employees

Over 280,000 Virginians are unemployed. That is unacceptable.
College tuition has doubled for Virginia students over the past decade. That is unconscionable.
Almost a quarter of Virginia's major urban roads are congested; parents are too often stuck in traffic when they should be spending precious time with their children. That is unreasonable.
Our state government stands in need of further significant reform and a renewed focus on its core functions. That is undeniable.
Our state retirement system has an unfunded liability of approximately $17.6 billion and Medicaid spending has grown 1600% over the past 27 years. That is unsustainable.

The Virginia Retirement System currently faces an unfunded liability of $17.6 billion. I propose that the 5% retirement contribution that we will ask all employees to pay be offset by a 3% raise for our state employees, the first in years. Source: 2011 Virginia State of the State Address Jan 12, 2011

Chris Christie: Raise the retirement age, and limit COLA, for state workers

Without reform, pension and health care benefit costs will increase by more than 40% over the next four years.
Without reform, the unfunded liability wil grow, from $54 billion today to a staggering $183 billion within 30 years.
Without reform, the required annual pension contribution by the state will grow to over $13 billion annually over that same time period.
Without reform, the beneficiaries of the system face a high risk of catastrophe which would place ALL of their benefits at risk.

We must modestly raise the retirement age in an era of longer life expectancy. We must curb the effect of COLAs in a time of low or no inflation. And we must ensure a modest but acceptable contribution from employees toward their own retirement system. Without reform, the problem we face is simple: Benefits are too rich, and contributions are too small, and the system is on a path to bankruptcy. Source: 2011 N.J. State of the State Address Jan 11, 2011

Christine Gregoire: End automatic benefit increases in state retirement programs

I am proposing we repeal a 1995 law that gave automatic benefit increases to retirees in the old PERS 1 and TRS 1 pension plans. The pension law was well intended but it carries a staggering price tag and we simply cannot afford it. Pension reform will save $2 billion over the next four years and more than $11 billion during the next 25 years.

I have looked at every state program and asked if it can be provided by others, if users should pay for it or if there are better ways to deliver the service.

Source: 2011 Washington State of the State Address Jan 11, 2011

The above quotations are from 2011 Governor's State of the State speeches. Click here for definitions & background information on Social Security. Click here for other issues (main summary page). Click here for more quotes by Andrew Cuomo on Social Security. Click here for more quotes by Jack Dalrymple on Social Security.
*Candidates and political leaders on Social Security:*
*Retired Senate as of Jan. 2015:* GA:Chambliss(R) IA:Harkin(D) MI:Levin(D) MT:Baucus(D) NE:Johanns(R) OK:Coburn(R) SD:Johnson(D) WV:Rockefeller(D) *Resigned from 113th House:* AL-1:Jo Bonner(R) FL-19:Trey Radel(R) LA-5:Rod Alexander(R) MA-5:Ed Markey(D) MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R) NC-12:Melvin Watt(D) SC-1:Tim Scott(R)	*Retired House to run for Senate or Governor:* AR-4:Tom Cotton(R) GA-1:Jack Kingston(R) GA-10:Paul Broun(R) GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R) HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D) IA-1:Bruce Braley(D) LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R) ME-2:Mike Michaud(D) MI-14:Gary Peters(D) MT-0:Steve Daines(R) OK-5:James Lankford(R) PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D) TX-36:Steve Stockman(R) WV-2:Shelley Capito(R)	*Retired House as of Jan. 2015:* AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R) AR-2:Tim Griffin(R) CA-11:George Miller(D) CA-25:Howard McKeon(R) CA-33:Henry Waxman(D) CA-45:John Campbell(R) IA-3:Tom Latham(R) MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R) NC-6:Howard Coble(R) NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D) NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R) NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D) NY-21:Bill Owens(D) PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R) UT-4:Jim Matheson(D) VA-8:Jim Moran(D) VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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Page last updated: Dec 04, 2018