Oregon lawmakers consider state-run retirement plan to boost residents’ savings
– Jonathan J. Cooper, Associated Press
SALEM, Ore. — Democratic lawmakers are promoting legislation that would automatically enroll thousands of Oregon workers in retirement savings accounts, a move that proponents said Monday would help ensure nobody is forced to work until they die or to spend their retirement years in poverty.
House and Senate bills would create a state-run retirement plan. Workers who don’t have access to a retirement account from their employer would automatically be enrolled, unless they opt out, and a percentage of their earnings would be withheld from each paycheck…
“I’m proud to sponsor these bills with my colleagues because they’ll give Oregonians the means and the opportunity to take control of their retirement and the chance to retire comfortably and with dignity,” said Rep. Tobias Read, D-Beaverton…
We Respond & Your Comments
You gotta love this…the brainiacs who blew $200 million of your bucks on the Columbia River Crossing (and didn’t even build the much needed bridge) and $300 million on Cover Oregon (and never covered a single person) now want to manage…your retirement nest egg!
Here’s how we see this working out:
- Oregon legislators decide to take10% of your salary to seed “Oregon Retires Happy”;
- They tell us, “You can’t retire on this 10%”;
- Then they say, “Greedy employers have to kick in another 10% to make this fair”;
- Despite promising not to, they loot Oregon Retires Happy to pay for pre-kindergarten “for the children”;
- In 5 years they tell us there’s an unfunded Oregon Retires Happy liability of $3 billion;
- To cover the unfunded liability they raise income taxes “on the rich” by 5 percent. But it’s only “temporary”;
- You retire. Oregon Retires Happy can only pay you half what they promised.
- You die unhappy 20 years later and the “temporary tax” has been raised to 10%.
So go ahead – trust them with your retirement account. What could possibly go wrong?
This is the most absurd piece of legislation I have ever heard of. I suppose they forgot about social security and why would I want them to take my money for a forced retirement when, like you say, they do nothing but waste it. I wish Oregon legislators would stop trying to reinvent everything.