Why can?t the boss know about retirement benefits bankrupting the operation?
Because, if that boss happens to be the taxpayers of Maryland, it?s none of our business, according to R. Dean Kenderdine, the executive director of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System.
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Kenderdine says we are just supposed to pay up, shut up and stay ignorant. That?s just how bureaucrats like us.
He spiked a Maryland Public Information Act request last month for the retirement benefits for all state employees by quoting a state regulation that denies inspection of retirement records except under limited circumstances.
Maybe. Now he is figuring out how to weasel around a narrowed request for the employer (read: Taxpayer) contributions given to retired elected and appointed officials, people explicitly covered in the “limited circumstances.”
But why can any government hide any public retirement contributions. Obviously, the amount contributed by employees can be private, but why should contributions by taxpayers?
Cities and states around the nation face crushing bills for retiree pension and health care. Some estimates place the bill at $2 trillion nationally. In Baltimore City, the 2008 budget includes payments of $118 million for pension benefits and $94.5 million for health care for retirees. Combined, that equals 10 percent of the budget. The trajectory of payments over the last seven years shows astronomical growth and can only lead to massive cuts in services or to tax hikes in the near future if contributions continue apace.
Don?t all residents of Maryland deserve to know how much we spend on retiree benefits and how much we will owe for current state employees so we might better prepare for our individual and collective financial future?
As revelations about the deal to extend pension benefits to former Baltimore City Deputy Police Commissioner Marcus Brown reveal, prohibiting the public from scrutinizing benefit records can aid and abet fraud.
Besides, the federal government defines retiree benefits as wages ?which the Maryland Public Information Act explicitly makes public ? and forces them to reveal unfunded liabilities. So how can the state reclassify one portion of wages ? retiree benefits ? as off-limits?
Would state officials rather keep those of us who pay their salaries blissfully ignorant of the huge credit card bill about to come due? Maryland taxpayers deserve to know how much current and former state employees will bill us.
Legislators must strike all prohibitions to viewing post retirement benefits from state law. Hiding the information only perpetuates the appearance the state has something to hide.
