Corporate Pension Funds Next in Line for Bailout Loot
"Pension relief for firms on Bush's desk" by Associated Press | December 12, 2008
WASHINGTON - In one of its final acts of the year, Congress yesterday relieved businesses of paying billions of dollars in required contributions to their pension plans in the coming year.
No, only STATES, CITIES and TOWNS will have to do that!
The legislation has been a priority of business groups, which contend some companies will have to freeze pension plans, lay off workers, or even go bankrupt without the relief. A voice vote in the Senate sent the measure to President Bush. The House approved the bill late Wednesday.
Many businesses with defined-benefit plans have absorbed a double blow: abiding by a 2006 law that they fully fund their plans and seeing the value of the plans eroded by declines in the markets. Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, one of the authors of the 2006 law, said he and most other senators "agree that those contributions should be postponed or later modified in order to keep companies viable."
But your town can go down the drain!
