Pfeifer Clarifies Position on Defined Benefit Retirement Plan for County's 700 Plus Employees

I voted against the establishment of a DB Plan on December 5th, 2007. The vote was 4-1.  I will also vote against a final version. I don’t believe they are satisfactory for employees, or employers. 

DB Plans are retirement plans. Basically, the employer guarantees a certain monthly benefit payment to employees after they reach retirement age, and retire. The obligation on the part of the employer extends until the death of the employee, sometimes beyond. If the employee leaves the job prior to their retirement, the obligation still exists and the payments will be made when the employee retires regardless of whom the employee is working for when they do retire.   

This is in contrast to Defined Contribution Plans (DC) where the employee and the employer put money into a retirement account. If the employee leaves the employer, they take their account with them because they own it. If they die, their spouse or children can inherit it. When they retire, this account provides income for them. There is no future obligation on the part of the employer. 

Fayette County has such a Plan right now. It’s been working quite well. It simply takes a commitment by the employee to participate. It does not obligate future taxpayers. 

In this case, the employer is named Fayette County but the real employer is the taxpayer. You are the employer. A DB Plan obligates future taxpayers; you, as long as you live here, then your children if they live here, to pay retired employees a pension until they die. 

I am opposed to making current, and future, taxpayers assume the risk and the expense of a retirement program that can be open ended, as DB plans are.  This includes any Fayette County employees who are also taxpayers in Fayette County. 

DB Plans are dinosaurs.  Costs always soar.  Private business, and many public entities such as Cities, Counties, and States etc. are eliminating them because they can’t afford them.  Promises have been broken using the bankruptcy process and even by going out of business.   

Ask former Eastern Airlines employees what happened to their Plan!  And, ask current Delta employees about their Plan.  Even the City of Atlanta is backing away from them.

People - taxpayers - you, who may have lost DB Plans or never had one, will be paying for the cost of a Plan for your employees!  Does that make sense to you, or seem fair to you? 

I believe that promises should not be made unless there is very strong reason to believe that they can be kept.  The people who make promises about DB Plans, don’t have to keep them.  They make the easy promises now, and the responsibility to fulfill these Plans comes due in the future and someone else has to deliver! 

Are you familiar with the promises made by Washington D.C. about Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid and the Welfare System?  Once “the camel’s nose is under the tent”, we can count on seeing the whole camel eventually.  That is simply how these things work.  The only way to control them is to never start them. 

I try to give everybody and every proposal the benefit of the doubt.  I think it’s my obligation as I represent you.  I’ve listened to the proposals for a DB Plan.  I just don’t believe that Fayette County and some advisors are that much smarter than the rest of the world. 

Peter Pfeifer
County Commission, Post 3