Judge rejects federal workers' pension suit

The COLA is not taxed federally, but the State take a big chunk of it when it is tax time. So, the COLA should be incorporated into the locality pay system. If the state is going to tax it, so should the Feds, that way we don't get taxed twice. The Feds and the states tax us in income taxes, you get a return (if you do), then the next year, the Feds and the State tax you again for the overpayment that you paid in previous year. That mean you are taxed twice for the same income in two different years.

Whats wrong with the Judge? He should know the purpose of government is to empower government employees.

Maybe the dismisal of the lawsuit is a good thing. It could have been an impediment to OPM's effort to correct the problem with Congress.

Our congressional delegation has done nothing in the past or present to correct this inequity which has gone on since 1994. Federal employees in 32 cities receive up to 31% more locality pay and retirement pay than those living in Hawaii and Alaska. The federal employees in the rest of the United States receive almost 13% more in locality and retirement pay that those living in Hawaii and Alaska. Where's the equity?

If Judge Pro thinks that our congressional delegation is going to take the lead in correcting this inequity, then he is wrongfully mistaken. Since 1994 our Hawaii congressional leaders have shown no interest.

Senator Akaka who sits on the Federal Employee Benefits Committee is the most influential congressional leader, but has done nothing, but post a locality pay FAQs and a locality pay calculator on his web site for all the years that this lawsuit and prior locality meeting have been held. It really shows you how much action,understanding, and aloha he has of this situation affecting his federal employees

Our other two senior congressional leaders, Inouye and Abercombie have also shown no interest in correcting this inequity among their federal residents since being in office when locality pay law was passed in 1994, but have brought in the bacon for large interest groups.

Yes, Hawaii's federal employees and families will remember Akaka's, Inouye's and Abercombie's congressional legacies in this matter as pleasing the big businesses, but not looking out for the small guy!

So of federal workers are able to get the COLA converted to locality pay adjustment, will they also be required to pay back taxes on all those years that the got 25% tax free COLA? Seems only fair.

Pay bax taxes, sure that is fair you idiot. Only if you promise to give back all of your tax refunds when the Democrats decide to raise taxes in the next few years....fair right?

The COLA is not truly tax free, as a previous poster said, and they are right, we end up getting double taxed on it.

The reason why the COLA is there in the first place is to keep people out here. Remove it and we all leave. The only problem with locality pay is that they are going to have to make the locality pay almost 50 percent. Otherwise, we will get less money than we get with COLA.

We in Alaska no longer receive a 25% COLA. Our COLA is being reduced 1% a year until the yet to be disclosed mystery number is met. This year our COLA will be 23%.

i am very pleased with the judge's ruling..these government sanctioned unions are a crushing burden on the citizens of hawaii....now we must concentrate on eliminating as many of these federal bureaucracies as possible...

The federal workers in Hawaii should NOT even receive COLA, as they are being paid too much. I should know because I am a retired federal worker. The federal government should recognize that in todays society, travel to the continental US is just a hop and skip away. I don't know what the big gripe is all about. When employed in Hawaii as a federal worker, they were aware that when retired, COLA would not be factored into the retired pension.

The blue collar workers actually do all the work and do not receive COLA at all. They are the onces that are underpaid and overworked and they are not grumbling.

If its too expensive then move.

ummmm who's going to pay for this? John Q Taxpayer? RIGHT...I want to pay MORE taxes. Hey Federal retirees, here's my wallet...just make sure to leave me a receipt so I can make the deductions when I file with the IRS...

Sorry, but I don't have any sympathy for people who have generous pension benefits but who want even more.

My retirement plan is called death. I fully expect to be working right up until that time since I would only have Social Security to rely upon if I don't work. I understand that it's maybe $850 - you try living on approximately $10,000 a year!

Hawai`i's high cost of day-2-day living means that there is no way to put money into IRAs or other voluntary retirement programs. Heck - we're still renters so we don't even have home equity to fall back on. I suspect that these people in the lawsuit have a number of other financial resources to cushion their quote inadequate unquote federal pensions.

Guess I made the wrong career choices back in the day - should have become a federal employee instead of working in the non-profit "industry" where we're expected to put in 15 hour days in exchange for doing good in the community rather than doing good for ourselves.

I agtee with Aaron - do they want their cake and have everybody else pay for it? If they want their back COLA included in retirement, they should have to pay the taxes on it. We moved to the cold East to get our "high 3" before we retire back to HI. Also, despite this supposed inequity, there is no scarcity of people trying to get federal jobs in HI. It took me 8 months to get back in when we moved back from overseas, and I was on LWOP, priority placement, and had 23 years experience and was applying for much lower grades. I saw so much nepotism and friends hiring marginally qualified friends, it is obvious it is desireable employment. I agree COLA should be phased out and made locality pay, but it was a known condition of employment so I don't think this suit should go forward. Move to the Mainland like we did, or save the taxes you aren't paying to plus up your retirement.

You can bet that the boys and girl we send to Congress make absolutely sure they get locality pay vs COLA. They don't give a whit about the little folks. I wish Hawaii would send only one Representive and one Senator to D.C. Since they all vote the same just give the one we send 2 votes. Save us a lot of money.
Tweedly DUMB and tweedly DEE. They say.. I got mine and foo on you...

I am also a retired DOD employee. After 33 years of service, I was reassigned to a GS (White Colar) position from A WG (Blue Collar) position due to downsizing from the contracting out of our function. The conversion in pay from WG to GS included the COLA. After a decision to retire as I was not cut out to be a paper pusher, the COLA was excluded. Had I retired prior to the reasignment I would have been receiving an additional 25% pay. This is just one example of federal employees being screwed by congress who decided to contract out our function. As far as comparable wages with the private sector, no way. I was making far less as a welder with the federal government as to what I make now in the private sector. Almost double in wages. If I had to do it over again, I would have never worked for the federal government. Nuff said.

These federal worker have it so good, that none of them will be jumping off the gravy train. Where can you find a job in Hawaii that will pay you 25% COLA and be federally tax free. GS workers especially engineers are overrated.

fedupfed wrote:

You can bet that the boys and girl we send to Congress make absolutely sure they get locality pay vs COLA. They don't give a whit about the little folks. I wish Hawaii would send only one Representive and one Senator to D.C. Since they all vote the same just give the one we send 2 votes. Save us a lot of money.
Tweedly DUMB and tweedly DEE. They say.. I got mine and foo on you...

HYSTERICAL!!!

Did they suspend the 14th Amendment Judge Amateur

Luis wrote:

The COLA is not taxed federally, but the State take a big chunk of it when it is tax time. So, the COLA should be incorporated into the locality pay system. If the state is going to tax it, so should the Feds, that way we don't get taxed twice. The Feds and the states tax us in income taxes, you get a return (if you do), then the next year, the Feds and the State tax you again for the overpayment that you paid in previous year. That mean you are taxed twice for the same income in two different years.

If you get a refund and you itemized your deductions the previous year, you have to report your state tax refund as income since you reduced your taxable income by deducting your taxes that were taken out of your pay check throughout the year. If you deducted $5,000 since that's what they took out of your paycheck, but your actual tax liability to the state was only $2,000, you only paid $2,000 to the state, but you deducted $5,000. The $3,000 difference is what you got back in your state refund, and you should report that as income on the new tax return since based on your actual tax liability, you overdeducted the prior year.

If you take the standard deduction instead of itemizing your deductions, you don't report your tax return as income since you didn't reduce your taxable income by the amount of taxes withheld from your paychecks.

I had a hard time understanding that concept, but after throughly thinking about it, it totally makes sense and is fair to me.

As a Contractor working side-by-side with Federal employees, I have no sympathy when their base pay is roughly the same as mine for roughly the same work, AND they get 26% COLA tax-free...PLUS, they have the option of greatly increasing their "high three" by simply transferring to another location for three years...

I retired from the Federal Fire Department after 35 yrs. of service. My last 10 yrs. as a BC. The IAFF local chapter here has been fighting this COLA vs Locality Pay for years. I been told that the National Office for the IAFF is been working hard to correct this problem. Because of the Major cut in my retirement pay, I am now employed with the State of Hawaii, just to make ends meet, but hard to stay above water,