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Old 03-29-2012, 22:13   #12
Sharky7's Avatar
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,093
Originally Posted by TexasFats View Post
Blueiron, your answer is the type of stuff I had in mind. So, whom should I ask to find out who are the good candidates from a street cop's perspective? How can I find out what pending legislation might be important to you guys on the front lines? For what it's worth, I know that brass and you guys on the street may not see things exactly the same way. How do I get your perspective?I'm tired of seeing officers scorched by the media for defending themselves against an attack by some street goblin with a gun or knife.
Along that lines, keep your mind open to police pensions. Lots of the general public are being misinformed by political propaganda lately.

At least in my state, all local police officers pension fund is NOT being paid for by the tax payers. Police officers generally pay around 10% of their salaries towards a pension fund. As part of their salary, their city employer matches that 10% into the fund as well. Think of that the same as a 401k matching program.

So if a police officer makes 50k a year, they actually only take home 45k a year.

The pension payments are paid for out of these privately run pension funds. They are NOT paid for by tax money.

The problems some towns/cities have run into is that they have failed to pay the matching portion. Dirty politicians have failed to honor their contracts and have used the money for their other pet projects. This began even before the recent 07' economy problems. Or some states have tried to acquire local gov pensions. In Illinois, Gov/Inmate Blago took over the teacher pensions and then borrowed against that fund using it as his piggy bank for state projects. Those are the reasons pensions are having problems in some areas - it has nothing to do with having to raise taxes to pay for these pensions. The payments come directly out of the pension funds which are built into the existing salaries. The funds are privately managed and grow similar to a really big 401k.
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