Bing administration says 2,500 proposed layoffs will help save Detroit $250M

[Ray1936]

Just trying to understand ----

He didn't pay 7% or so into SS and Medicare, but paid 5% into the city's pension?

And the city didn't have to pay their 7% into SS either, right?

In fairness, Wesley is correct....although the SS percentage was much lower for most of my years, and medicare didn't even exist until after 1965. But the city did contribute in to the pension fund, so they didn't save anything by not having to contribute to SS.

Frankly, I know quite a few retired DPD and DFD personnel who are on the cusp of poverty in their last years. Thanks to the fact that I have a thrifty and frugal wife who also worked all her life [[not on government), we find ourselves comfortable. When we got married in '58, we made an agreement. Everything she earns is hers. Everything I earn, is also hers. Since I'm a financial idiot, all credit to her for my comfort.

[Wesley Mouch]

In fairness, Wesley is correct....although the SS percentage was much lower for most of my years, and medicare didn't even exist until after 1965. But the city did contribute in to the pension fund, so they didn't save anything by not having to contribute to SS.

Frankly, I know quite a few retired DPD and DFD personnel who are on the cusp of poverty in their last years. Thanks to the fact that I have a thrifty and frugal wife who also worked all her life [[not on government), we find ourselves comfortable. When we got married in '58, we made an agreement. Everything she earns is hers. Everything I earn, is also hers. Since I'm a financial idiot, all credit to her for my comfort.

Ray, glad to hear your doing OK in retirement -- and thanks to you for your service to me and to Detroit.

[Detroit_uke]

Was just called out by AlPublican....I had written that Detroit had 13,400 employees...I went back and read the State of the City address [[March 7, 2012)....my apologies Should be [[according to speech) 10,800

[coracle]

Interesting info. relevant to the subject. Detroit overstaffed compared to other cities | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com

[Novine]

Those numbers have been discussed before. The comparisons done by the paper don't bother to look at whether they are apples-to-apples comparisons. Detroit's numbers include the water and sewer department which serves the entire region and accounts for thousands of employees. Unless we know that the same is true of those other cities, the comparisons don't show much.

[coracle]

Those numbers have been discussed before. The comparisons done by the paper don't bother to look at whether they are apples-to-apples comparisons. Detroit's numbers include the water and sewer department which serves the entire region and accounts for thousands of employees. Unless we know that the same is true of those other cities, the comparisons don't show much.

That's a good point Novine. If thousands of employees serve the entire region for water/sewer, presumably they are already largely payed for by the whole region's water/sewer bills. If Detroit taxpayers fund the other workers and have to lay off 2500 of them it doesn't bode well for the future. Maybe I'm wrong [[but I've never let that interfere before).