Same here....and my wife is a teacher.

Except that Alabama has no teachers' union. The AEA has no legal status as a union, and the Republicans in Montgomery are influenced by the AEA zero percent since 2010.

Also, if Alabama continues to have a supermajority in Montgomery, it's only a matter of time before Republicans with the help of the Koch brothers and other groups take away teacher, law enforcement, and fire fighter retirement. We have ALDEER brothers here who will be substantially hurt by the changes coming to Alabama's public worker retirement in the years to come if we don't have a balance of power and voices in Montgomery.

Those of us with children in university damned sure remember it. A LOT of us do.

The PACT debacle has been hashed out here before so I won't go into it again. But shrugging your shoulders, saying "Welp, the economy!" and then having the $#@*($*#@ teremity to say you didn't guarantee anything when your promotional literature and site did, thus requiring a $@#*($#*@ lawsuit to get anything, HAS NOT BEEN FORGOTTEN.

I don't know if Ivey is a drunk, a lesbian, likes creamy peanut butter instead crunchy (which is better), kicks puppies, puts sugar in her cornbread (highly doubtful) or prefers ballistic tips instead of lead in her .223 deer ammo. I'll hold my nose and vote for her instead of Maddox. She hasn't screwed up anything so far, or someone hasn't.

I'd invest in a concrete company if Walt gets elected. That joker will have running trails and sidewalks all over the state ASAP.

Based on what I am getting from this post from the beginning....

I'm wondering why y'all voted for Kay Ivey in the first place?

It appears to me most here are saying they would never vote for Walt while also saying Kay is not a good candidate.

Why did you not vote for Tommy Battle?


Seems like Roy Moore Part II.

Also highlights how bad this state is run and what kind of swamp we've got on our hands and we ALL know it.

Next election are y'all going to do something about it or vote for the Montgomery Swamp Candidate again and expect different results?

You think they'll just take away the pensions? Like, poof, gone? They've got all sorts of legal reasons why that isn't possible. It's very rare even in states/municipalities that have gone bankrupt, for workers to actually lose their retirement, besides the obvious fact that any politician voting to do away with existing retirement would be politically unwise.

How is this any different than what we've had since George Wallace?

Fob - "catered to business interests and special interests"
Hunt - "man of the people, country guy, manipulated by those behind the scenes"
Folsom - "career politician," The Accidental Governor
Siegelman - career politician - literally - and no explanation needed
Riley - "catered to business interests and special interests"
Bentley - The Big Mistake
Ivey - "caters to business and special interests"

What governor ever has been for The People of their state? They always are beholden to special interests. Even Moonbeam Brown in Kaliforniastan is beholden to them.

Maddox would be the same way.

Don't know the ins added outs, but there is major talk of going to a 401k. Some people may like it, but I knowof several that will walk for a different job when this happens. Mainly fire and ems.

Look up Alabama’s state retirement right now . If you were hired after 2013 you are on Tier 2 which means you are getting royally f*** . More money taken out of your check but you will draw substantially less than tier 1 when you are eligible to retire in 40+ years ( done away with the 25 yr retirement ). Alabama’s politics and government has been a s*** show since 2006 and it only continues to get worse for people planning on retiring if your in state govt , teachers , and municipalities.
I won’t vote for another cork soaker reguardless of party that continues to put MY money in the damn general fund so they can buy a cabin and rent damn whores with it .
Nathaniel Ledbetter from Rainsville is the only damn one who is trying to fix the shitshow of a retirement system that these Conservative candidates we continue to put in there shi*** up . I’m sure they will can his ass as soon as possible since he has a smidge of sense.

I don't know duxlayer above, but he's exactly right on several points.

A vote for a DEMOCRAT is a vote for HIGHER TAXES and bigger government. No matter what they say, democrats are all about group think, and that group thing is to benefit them and hurt the people.

Just an honest question here. What makes anyone feel that they are "entitled" to a generous pension, benefits and retirement? 95% of the rest of the workers in the US are not, so why should another be, just because they are a public or govt employee. In a ton of areas, the govt and public wage structures have almost caught up with private industry whereas that was not the case 40 or even 20 years ago. The lucrative pensions were necessary to attract people back when the wage structure was only 60% of what others were paid to do the same job in private industry. Instead, over the years, they've lobbied for and gotten pay raises to bring them up closer market rate, while at the same time fully expecting to have full paid health care coverage, every holiday known to man off, and a generous pension on top of it all.

Here's the way it works for the rest of us in the real world where there's no such thing as tenure or seniority. What you make is soley based on your performance and hard work and if you dont work hard, you dont have a job. You earn your money, invest wisely, put back savings each week, start a business that will continue to provide cashflow to you after you retire, set up an IRA, take advantage of any 401(k) and matching that your employer may offer. This is how the rest of the world plans for retirement.

I dont begrudge anyone that started 40 years ago and they are fully entitled to the pension plan that they started under when they went to work. They suffered through those early years when the wage structure was not nearly as fair as it is today. Good for them and I hope they enjoy that retirement. At the same time, I cant stand to hear people complaining today about how they actually have to pay something for their health insurance and lord forbid, they actually have to participate in a 401(K) like the rest of the world, instead of a fully funded pension plan that allows fully vested retirement after 25 yrs. Nobody is able to retire in private industry after just 25 yrs otherwise every 50 yr old out there would be retired. I can assure you that if it does move to a 401(k), the matching %'s will be double what the private industry companies are offering.

I assume you are directing that at me about so I will respond. I don’t feel entitled to anything I work three jobs and hustle and make money every chance I can . I have worked since was 16 . Went and got a college degree but could earn more money and it was closer to home for me to work for a local govt (municipality ) and the benefits package was a big draw to working there as opposed to going and making $10-12 more per hour in the private sector . It just sucks when they start takin away the benefits that caused me to pick this job and putting it ,as the lady said last week “ back into the retirement systems of Alabama “. F the state of Alabama and the cork suckers strokin a pen in Montgomery I’m gonna watch out for me and get mine . My Parents always told me if you want something soft in life s** in your hand . Btw our company matches 15% in rsa-1. So now you really got something to cry about .

I'm with duxlayer. I don't know what he does, but i know what I do, and almost every person I know works 2 or 3 jobs. Everyone of them could be making more money. The benefits are why most are here. If they go away, and everyone leaves for better jobs, then the quality of people entering into these jobs will probably go down as well. Or they will have to raise the pay for them to stay. Then everyone will complain that the state is spending too much on salaries. By the way, we don't get insurance when we retire.

I was actually talking about VT bitching about having to pay $900 for great insurance and constantly complaining about teacher's wages. For the record, I'm not crying about anything. I was merely stating facts. Your statement above just proved my point exactly. Dollar for dollar with a 15% salary match in a 401(K) is unheard of in the rest of the world. That's great that you have that opportunity and I'm proud for you. If retirement is your goal, just smile, go to work everyday and be happy because you're not going to get that or anywhere close to that in private industry.

As a state employee I’m certainly not entitled to anything, but on the flip side I’m going to fight to keep the benefits I do have. The benefits certainly make up for the salary differences from the private sector. And for the record, I work a part time job AND do seasonal work on top of what I give the people of AL. Call entitled or whatever you want to call it.

Back to the topic. Salty Walty don’t stand a chance in this election.

It got derailed pretty fast!

The City of Selma provided us with better insurance. Peehip isn't the worst, but it is not as great as many people think.

Couple thoughts....

First... They should do away with pensions period. They are a bad deal. This is why in the private sector pensions are largely a thing of the past and/or they should be. I know people like AL Power still provide pensions but they should end that practice. In the end we (you and I) will fund that pension obligation through increased utility costs. Same with any public jobs, state local or otherwise. I don't need to fund anyone's retirement I am having a hard enough time funding my own.

Second... if that is the reason you took the job in the first place I don't feel sorry for you. You knew what you were getting into. You said to yourself I want job security, I want guaranteed money at retirement, and apparently a lot of you said and.... by they way.... I also want to get paid as well as private sector jobs.

That's not how that works.

When I was making this decision I said I don't want that. I want to be all I can be. I want to make it on my own by my own effort and live or die by my work ethic, intelligence, etc.

Now... I will be fair. That is an oversimplification of the situtation. But that is also why I didn't choose to be Fire Fighter. Because I knew I would never make a ton of money. I have great respect for those that made that decision it is somewhat similar to being a soldier and I 100% admire other's sense of duty to serve their country and or their community.

But in the same breath this argument also sounds like someone signed up to be a soldier thinking there is no way they would have to actually fight or get shot.

It doesn't work that way.

They should provide you with the benefits you were promised when you signed up and not a penny more or a penny less. And I will get on board with any and all of you guys in that regard. We need to keep our promises.

But in the end I think there should be no promises made in the first place. And if that means we don't have enough police officers the system will change.

Uh the same reason you expect to get social security. You PAID into it