The stock market rocket that took off with the election of Donald Trump in November 2016 has brought some much-needed relief to one of the state of Vermont’s most painful, persistent problems: its troubled public pension funds.
In the final part of our interview with David Coates, retired managing partner at KPMG and a member of the Vermont Business Roundtable, we look at why the state faces a declining workforce and ranks at the bottom for wages and benefits, and consider solutions to revive Vermont’s economy.
In the second part of our interview, David Coates (retired managing partner at KPMG who has years of experience with Vermont’s debt and fiscal woes) proposes corrective measures to address the state’s growing debt of unfunded liabilities.
For years, David Coates has been sounding the alarm about Vermont’s unfunded liabilities regarding public pensions and health care benefits for retirees and their spouses. He joins us to explain this crisis and why no one in power wants to deal with the elephant in the room.
We need to have conversations about substantive reform if we’re serious about paying down our liabilities while making financially responsible decisions for our state’s future.
Vermonters may wonder why there is a continual struggle to fund state initiatives, and why raising taxes is often discussed. One cause of this complex problem is the state’s unfunded pension liabilities for the state employees’ and teachers’ retirement systems.
To address the imbalances in the teachers pension fund, our political leaders must first start down the path of reasonable compromise with the NEA.
The pension crisis is an issue has been simmering below the public radar for years. Although huge in its potential consequences, it has not received a lot of critical attention for a number of reasons.
The pension fund crisis estimated at about $4.5 billion in unfunded liabilities has worked its way into the budget talks currently playing out at the state capital.
In this episode of Vote for Vermont, co-hosts Pat McDonald and Ben Kinsley interview David Coates about the state pension crisis and how it may affect Vermonters, budgets and the state’s bond rating.
Under pressure from a few very large and politically powerful plans — including the United Mine Workers of America and the Central States Trucking Union — liberal lawmakers are seeking up to a hundredfold increase in taxpayer bailouts for private, union-run pension plans.