Wisconsin Retirement System

RedactedThe Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this morning follows up our own weekend blog post on Gov. Scott Walker's effort to paint his "study" of the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) as merely thoughtful and prudent, rather than rapacious. With a decidedly different take, of course.

More important, the item in the newspaper's Politifact column (link below) makes us revisit a question we've asked before:

When the Journal Sentinel writes about the pension plans of other public or even private workers, shouldn't in the interest of good journalism it fully disclose the fact that its parent company, Journal Communications, Inc., itself has a pension plan? 

Later than you thinkThe professionals at the Wisconsin Dept. of Employee Trust Funds (ETF), which is the pension and benefits administrator for the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS), came out with a media advisory on Aug. 4 that perhaps was overlooked in the days leading up to the recall elections. Basically, the report shows that public employees suddenly this year have been inquiring about their retirement packages and taking retirement at enormously high levels.

Gee, wonder why? Hmmm. Could it be, oh, I don't know, maybe .... SATAN!!?

The WRS serves hundreds of thousands of active and retired state and local public employees across Wisconsin. The key data: