Politifact Nixes Wisconsin Union Boss’ Claim of “Self-Funded” Pension Plan
On June 14, 2012 the state’s highest-profile public employee labor leader, Marty Beil, talked pensions during an appearance on the liberal “Sly in the Morning” radio show on Madison’s WTDY radio.
Beil, executive director of District Council 24 of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), said “we have pensions here that are not out of line. We have pensions that don’t put huge amounts of economic burden on the taxpayers.”
Beil went on: “It’s really the employees’ money, and that has to be told, and has to be told to legislators, to neighbors and friends — that this really is a self-funded pension plan. It’s the money of the workers’ that funds it.”
But Beil’s “self-funded” remark leaves the strong misimpression that taxpayers have little or no skin in the game, when, in fact, taxpayers have been the major source of the money in the pension fund.
We rate Biel’s claim Mostly False.