Special Board of Aldermen 09-21-2021 Page 18
have a handful of teachers. We've got more than a handful in this town.
So | don't know what message you can bring back. I've already banged my head against the wall up there in Concord. |
am proud of my fellow delegation that has gone up there and | did have to support that 5% trying to get it back into the
pension system. But that 5% would have helped the Nashua taxpayer and that's what we're really talking about here.
These other people from the hinterlands of, you know, wherever they have cows, and barns, and everything great for
them. We in the city have broad shoulders down here and we're expected to put out fires, and manage a police
department, and educate children that come from other communities, and everything. So things are going good but we
would appreciate some support from Concord but we're not getting it. | just hope in the future, and like | say, I'm very
appreciative coming here like this but in the future, | don't know what you can do. | mean as a legislator we will try more.
I've seen games and I'll ask you just one final question if | may. When you have a pension system, people is dumped by
percentages. So if a police officer, or a firefighter, or a teacher what they get paid a percentage goes into the pension
system. It's the same percentage in Canaan as it is in Nashua. What he withdraws is based upon that percentile that he
puts into the system. So | heard on the legislative floor that it is what Nashua pays its employees. It has nothing to do
with that if we follow the law of percentages. Am | correct?
Jan Goodwin, Executive Director of NH Retirement System
Yes. The contributions are based on the salaries and it's the same percent for each of the participants in the plan
whether it's Nashua, or Portsmouth, or any other city or town. It's the same percent.
Alderman O’Brien
Yeah and | thank you for that answer because a lot of our teachers that do yeoman work within our school system, the
firefighters, the police officers that accepts their duties, and a lot of work realize that and unfortunately | think every State
Rep. in the room has heard that before echoed in the chamber up there. Oh it's what you guys pay in Nashua has
nothing to do with it. It's strictly the larger percentages. Thank you.
President Wilshire
Alderman Dowd.
Alderman Dowd
Yeah just two quick things. One - several people asked me if the State of New Hampshire has a lot of - | hate to use the
term “elderly” cuz | probably fall on it but | don't know how that shifting are we getting younger or older which would affect
the pension, particularly people that are retiring.
But the other question | have is when you say 100% funded, that means that you have enough money in the plan that if
every single person working today retired today, you could pay them their pension? Is that's correct?
Jan Goodwin, Executive Director of NH Retirement System
Yes.
Alderman Dowd
Major companies — thousands of them, as I've looked at them - don't get to 100% because not everybody that they have
is eligible for retirement for a long time. So there's a vast number of people in the retirement system that couldn't retired
if they wanted to. So to have the money to pay them for retirement for the major companies in the United States doesn't
make sense. So why have that money? So why are our States different in that they feel they need a dollar for every
person that could possibly is in the system for retirement, they can't retire till they reach 20 years. To me, that doesn't
make sense either.
Again, by the way, I'm not here to shoot the messenger. We appreciate your being here and we're just using you as a
conduit to get some information back to Concord.
Marty Karlon, Director of Communications and Legislative Affairs
Thank you for having us. It was very civil and a good conversation and if hopefully we had some answers. It may not
