State Firefighters, Law Enforcement Officers, and other Public emplyee pensions are under assault by some state legislators under the false pretext of "fiscal responsibility".

Channel 13 Tampa Story

TALLAHASSEE - It used to be that you took a government job for the security, you earned less money, but you always had that big pension, bigger than the one you'd get in private industry, waiting for you at the end of your career.

Well, in Florida that could be about to change, thanks to tight budgets and projections showing the state's best in the nation pension fund won't be able to carry future retirees at today's rates.

Bills in Tallahassee would dramatically cut future state benefits, to bring, supporters say, Florida's retirement system in line with private employers.

Economist Rodney Johnson telling FOX13, "its got legs, its got legs, fiscal responsibility is the new catch phrase, and its what taxpayers want, because taxpayers are looking at their personal budget and saying, I don't have anything extra".

The argument goes, now that pay for law enforcement, firefighters and teachers is much higher than it used to be, there's no more need for higher pensions. Hillsborough Sheriff David Gee fears less pension will mean fewer recruits, especially from the military.

"There may be some things that need to be straightened out in the pension plan", Gee says, "I'll agree on that, but to wholesale change it without any input from law enforcement in the middle of the legislative session, its just dealing from the bottom side of the deck".

The bills would cut benefits for all state employees with less than 10 years service by averaging not the top five years of pay, including overtime, but instead an average of total career pay, without overtime, or left over sick pay. Employee contributions would go up along with the number of years required to collect a pension.

Very disappointing to Sheriff's recruits, like Mariana Goncalves, who would be among the first to see those smaller pensions.

"We're putting our lives on the line every day", Goncalves says, "we don't know if we're coming home every day, so changing the pension plan changes the whole picture".

Yet with local unemployment up over 13-percent, economists say plenty of folks will still want the lower pension government jobs. Sheriff Gee says that may be true, but he's still going to have a harder time finding qualified applicants, who haven't used drugs, or had problems with the law.