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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: koan who wrote (546098)1/25/2010 9:26:27 PM
From: TimF  Respond to of 1578337
 
They could have done a number of things, some ideas -

1 - A general restraint on spending.

2 - Some form of "rainy day fund" that was sufficiently large, and somehow reasonably protected from politicians raiding it before a seriously "rainy day" (like the current situation).

3 - Less generous pensions for state employees. (This one is developing in to a long term fiscal nightmare, rainy day funds would be almost irrelevant to it, its not just a cyclical issue.) To an extent the less generous pensions could have been made up for by having a defined contribution plan replacing some of the pension payout. (The problem with this is you have to do it before your promise the pensions, changes now, at least without the state actually going bankrupt, won't change anything for the already retired employees, and probably not for the currently working employees, at least not for what they already have vested.)