Raimondo pays off Wall Street pals with COLA cuts

Siedle says COLA cuts are paying Wall Street fees

By Bob Plain in RIFuture.org

Forbes.com opinion blogger Ted Siedle has posted another piece highly critical of Gina Raimondo’s so-called reforms to the state pension system.

This time he suggests that the amount retirees’ cost of living adjustment was slashed might be just enough to afford the new fees being paid to the venture capitalists and hedge fund managers with whom Raimondo gambled the state’s pension fund.

The so-called “reforms” of the state pension in the Rhode Island Retirement Security Act of 2011, which include slashing the COLA, I’m told are projected to save $2.9 billion over 20 years. Suspension of the COLA is estimated to represent $2.3 billion of that savings.

I can tell you where that COLA savings is going—into the already-stuffed pockets of Wall Street’s most highly-compensated gamblers—almost dollar-for-dollar. By my estimate, $2.1 billion in fees (out of the $2.3 billion in COLA savings) will be paid by the pension to hedge, private equity and venture capital tycoons. That’s some “reform.” No wonder Wall Street is so eager to support this shameless public pension money grab.

Here are his other posts on Raimondo’s pension work:

• 22 Tough Questions For Rhode Island’s Pension ‘Reform’ Treasurer
• Rhode Island’s Scary State Treasurer
• Rhode Island Public Pension ‘Reform’ Looks More Like Wall Street Feeding Frenzy

Bob Plain is the editor/publisher of Rhode Island's Future. Previously, he's worked as a reporter for several different news organizations both in Rhode Island and across the country.