The Next Retirement Time Bomb - New York Times

The Next Retirement Time Bomb - New York Times:

ATTEMPTS to balance the competing interests of retirees, active workers and taxpayers are building tension. Ross Eisenbrey, a former Clinton administration official who is now at the Economic Policy Institute, said that 'when taxpayers wake up to these obligations, their first inclination is often to escape them or reduce them.'

The problem is that people have counted on those benefits, and many have accepted lower salaries in exchange for better retirement benefits, said Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at the University of Notre Dame. If they are close to retirement, said William R. Pryor, a firefighters' union official who is an elected board member of the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association, it may well be too late for them to make up for the loss with their own savings.

As a boomer with hopes of retiring wihin the next ten years, this gives me heartburn. I'll have to see what New York State reports in '07. At least we have a fund set aside which has done very well over the past 20 years. Whether it can keep up with the demands is another story. I sure hope it does!