Why hasn't a freeze been out on the pension like most private comapnies that have found they can no longer fund a defined benefit pension? Answer...because we're talking about public sector jobs. It's reprehensible that state and local workers still recieve large pensions that are funded by tax payers. They should implement 403B plans which employees would have to contribute to like most other entities.

I believe that municipal employees contribute in excess of 10% of their salaries into a state pension fund in order to receive small to medium pensions, certainly not large as the first respondee indicated. Moreover municipal employees, as I understand are paid at a lower rate than private industry, but had negotiated benefits over time to somewhat close the "income gap".

Jo - That was true years ago and was the start of the mess we now find ourselves in. Today, average public sector pay is equal or greater than average private sector pay. Add to that these pensions (80% of your best 3 years) and it is easy to see why we are running out of money. Now add the back room deals and we have an ex Senate President retired after a couple of years as head of UMASS with a $208,000 pension! Nice work if you can look yourself in the mirror each morning!

If anybody thinks a police officer is making a lit if money in a 40 hr work week, you're probably insane.

A quarter of a BILLION debt.

I'll say it again....

A quarter of a Billion....

Thankfully these Pension handouts and free heath care in retirement are "self" funding or we would be in a heck of a mess.

Oh..Mr Montuori...Repeat after me....The Town has NO money, never has, never will.

The money comes from the Taxpayers.

"who me" sounds a lot like "Harry" from TewksburyIssues

Looks like he needs a new site to haunt since that board is dying

It is time to end town pensions and retirement benefits.. Start a basic 401K plan for all current town employees and future hires. End town paid retirement health and dental benefits. Let retired workers ( and their spouses) obtain medicare like everyone else.This would also prove to be beneficial by providing town employees a reason to work a normal 40-50 year career like everyone in the private sector. The current system of putting in only 20 years to receive upwards of possibly 50+ years of benefits is crazy.

"Presently, the town pays around $2.5 million per year for those benefits, said Montuori. While the benefits issue has not yet been dealt with, the town manager made clear it is not being ignored.

"It’s an issue and we’re going to need to address it . It’s coming," he said"
Mr. Montuori, if it's not being "ignored" just what are you doing about it ? You say that it's "coming", yet you don't seem to even be breathing heavy yet.
The spicket of federal $ that trickles down thru the state to the towns is going to end. You owe the taxpayers and municipal employees a full explanation of how you are going to deal with this looming financial crisis.
I would urge any interested to check out author Michael Lewis' review of what has happened to San Jose and Vallejo,CA.,municipalities that have already reached the end of the road of fiscal insanity that Tewksbury is speeding down.

Unfunded liabilities are unacceptable. It is just putting todays expenses off till tomorrow. It is putting them on the backs of future generations. If you pay a worker say $30,000.00 per year and have additional benefits of say $ 10,000.00 per year, that $ 10,000.00 should be set aside in the year it was accrued. If our real estate taxes are say $ 6,000.00 per year and should really be $ 10,000.00 per year it would be very nice to know so we all could move to Florida that much sooner. Public funded employees need to be on programs similar to the private sector and the split should be 50/50. We will see this in our life time. Let the unions fund it and let the unions collect the dues. The gov't is broke and the give a ways need to stop. When these crazy programs were developed people did not live much past 65 (if they even lived that long). They now live to 85. I wonder what age this unfunded model uses?

I think that the voters of Wisconsin have spoken loud and clear on this issue and hopefully the rest of the country will follow suit. The endless pensions and healthcare ride must end. Private sector and Public sector jobs pay more than equal now. The former secretary of the Town Manager was pulling down 98,000 dollars, just for one example.

Here is a piece of the Top Tewksbury Earners from back in 200. How many of you are making this in the private sector AND receiving an endless pension AND healthcare??

154,378.36 Police
124,439.01 School Department
117,501.80 Fire Department
112,689.29 Police
111,422.89 Town Manager
110,415.11 Fire Department
108,346.92 Police
105,914.81 Fire Department
103,146.72 Police
98,725.12 Fire Department
98,399.00 Police
97,378.70 Police
97,207.95 Fire Department
95,366.97 Fire Department
94,886.92 School Department
94,731.51 School Department
94,645.76 Police
93,031.07 School Department
92,737.89 DPW
92,482.64 Police
91,815.02 Fire Department
91,141.42 Police
90,886.47 Fire Department
89,640.28 Police
etc
etc

This list was from 2002. You can imagine how high it is now...

mike t full retirement from civil service is 32 years for 80% of the top three years of service. Bob Ferrari, if you look at fy 2010 numbers you will probably see they are the same if not less than the 2002 numbers or have we forgotten the South Fire Station has been closed for at least 2-6 months since 2008. If everyone feels that Municipal Employees are making too much money and have endless benefits, ask yourself how much money would it take for you to work Christmas Day, Thanksgiving Day, 4th of July, etc, answer 911 calls at 3 in the morning or as soon as you sit down to eat your breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Serving you Community is just like serving your Country its not for everyone, its not easy or about the money.

I already work on holidays, weekends, and nights... I also took a pay cut a few years ago, thank you very much.

Ferrari, one thing about those #s for the police or fire...they are not based on a 40 hr work week. For police, overtime and details are included. Details are like a whole other job and not getting paid from the town. Fire has overtime included in those #s with a little amout of details they have.
Also, people need to get their facts straight when they post here. Benefits are not cheap or next to nothing. They have done nothing but go up for the past 10 years.

Tewksbury police are the least paid officers in this region. If anything they deserve a pay increase.

Before anyone starts believing Bob Ferrari too much, it is common knowledge he started editing and deleting other peoples' posts on his own web board when they conflicted with his agenda. No less than 5 people that I know of confirm this fact. It is not surprising that he is now on the Patch since his own website is a ghost town.

I would love to know how many nights, weekends and holidays Bob has "worked" and in what super important position. And if he indeed did take a "pay cut" like he claims, perhaps he could share what he was making before.

What is your problem? I believe "anyone" is free to post wherever they want. All websites have glitches and neither TI nor the Patch are immune. Posts disappear at times so I don't know "whose authority" you're going on for the unproven fact of "it's common knowledge." There are plenty of "trolls" to go around....no need to make stuff up in trashing another website. Plenty of room for everyone. If it weren't for TewksburyIssues pioneering the way WELL before forums like these became the norm I'd hate to think of where the Town would be today. For everyone's sake....give it a rest.

We need to end pensions like the private sector has. I'm not talking about current employees, they were promised pensions when they were hired. But with new employees, a 401k with a good match is perfectly reasonable and I do not believe for a minute we will have any serious problems finding good candidates for jobs.

Intheknow, baseless accusations, yet again.

At my current employer they abolished the pension plan a few years back based on a "magic number". If your years of service plus your age equaled or was greater than 65, then you get to stay in the pension plan. If your number was below 65, you got some payout and that is that.

The private sector abolished pensions, time for the public tax-payer sector to do the same. Wisconsin's Governor turned a multi-billion dollar debt into a 90 million dollar surplus. That is why the Unions wanted him out and wasted over 60 million dollars on the campaign against him.