KEY POINTS

MANDATORY SOCIAL SECURITY

• Approximately 75 percent of the nation’s fire fighters are not enrolled in the Social Security system. Instead, they participate in specialized fire fighter pension plans that have been designed to reflect the unique circumstances of their profession, including early retirement ages and high rates of disability. Requiring Social Security coverage of all state and local government employees would undermine these tailored pension plans.

• The revenue generated by mandatory coverage of state and local government workers would be marginal and temporary. The wholesale disruption of the retirement plans of our nation’s first responders is too heavy a price to pay for such a small contribution to the solvency of the Social Security system.

• Forcing fire fighters into the Social Security system would amount to an unfair 6.2 percent tax increase on these middle-income workers.

• Paying the employer’s share of the Social Security tax would place a financial strain on many cash-strapped municipalities. This would lead to cutbacks in municipal services, including fire protection.

• Claims that public employees are “double-dipping” by receiving Social Security benefits to which they are not entitled are inaccurate. The current law contains offsets which reduce Social Security benefits for those receiving a government pension from a non-covered employer.

• The creation of these specialized public sector pension plans came in direct response to Congress prohibiting public employees from participating in Social Security. As recently as 1994, fire fighters in many states were not allowed to join the system. It is unfair to force public agencies to now curtail or abolish these well-funded, financially stable plans just to generate a small amount revenue to the Social Security Trust Fund.