"Yet people keep electing the same politicians who are responsible for these outrages"

The poor vote for Democrats and they remain poor. At least the conservatives give you a chance to pursue your dreams and aspirations with risk taking not keep you in the plantation picking cotton for the liberal slumlords.

So we found new criminals in the state pension fund. They steal from those who they are there to protect? Sounds like they are following in Tommy Thompson footstep

This is what has been going on for a few years. Remember 2008-2009. Several dozen banks, investment firms and others had a few scams going which ultimately caused their firms and the US economy to crash. The CEOs and other higher ups were rewarded with obscene bonuses, many of them in the 30-50 million dollar range. This money was taken from YOU to pay them, certainly not for their stellar performance. This is looting that is going on in this country. Yet people keep electing the same politicians who are responsible for these outrages. Electing them over and over again. Your Paul Ryan was a big supporter of these 2008-2009 bailouts and the ensuing looting that took place by the big shots.

State Journal has a more complete story. I think it is an important one to read for the overall picture.

http://host.madison.com/news/state-and-r...

This is totally wrong & YES as one has already has said - "LEGALIZED THEFT" - Anyone that is the ultimate person in charge needs to be fired.

dtb You know what that's exactly what I did was pull my money out 10 years ago for this reason and put it In A IRA along with my 401k. Because these guys are getting a big fat bonus at the expense of everyone else and the money goes into there wallets and not the people who earned it after years of hard work their the ones that deserve the money and not these guys. The money should be put back into peoples pensions and not be used to pay these guys a bonus and this is what is not sitting well with me. What do you think will happen to people who get there pensions reduced because of this. Sense your right that system is screwed and has screwed it's contributes.

The money comes from the employees who are vested in the WRS.

It don't matter who did what. Fact still remains the pensions were shrunk and where to you think this money is coming from.

Glad to see you agree.

Of course.

Actually Bush shrunk the pensions.

Insane! I don't believe for a a minute bonuses of that amount are deserved or warranted!

"Honey, I Shrunk the Pensions"

"Everywhere there's lots of piggies
Living piggy lives
You can see them out for dinner
With their piggy wives
Clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon"

dtb ..I'm receiving a pension from WRS..haven't seen an increase in years. This information makes my blood boil. I better be getting a raise soon, or welfare will start looking pretty good.Sigma, any openings at McDonalds ?

Well, I see Scott Angus and his crack team of A.P. reporters succeeded in stirring up the "useful idiots" again.

WR - this is the system that the WRS works under. If you don't like it then pull your money out of the system; just don't expect any pension when you retire. This isn't taxpayer money here - it's the contributions to the WRS system that are made by the employees.

Classic example of the 1% making even more on the backs of the 99%

"This is how a Republican ran world works. So you elected them, hows it working for you."

Low information voter.

This is how a Republican ran world works. So you elected them, hows it working for you.

the rich get richer and the poor get poorer ---if that is the financial philosophy, the Kool-Aid company is in for a HUGE profit !!! unless, of course, they raise the price of Kool-Aid to where even poor people cant afford it .

Bonuses and salaries for fund managers should be calculated in the same way that retiree payments are calculated - then everyone has the same financial incentives. Instead, they get paid full rate during the bad years, and double during the good - if their individual efforts actually had anything whatsoever to do with the fund performance in the good years, then they should logically be punished for their "poor" performance in the bad years (just so everyone is clear, the fund performance tracks the broader market and has little, if anything, to do with the individual fund managers). The reality is that it's easier to skim off the top when times are good (ask America's CEOs how things are working out lately).

carlitosway, if you had checked their dates of hire, you would have seen that all but the FNG (Financial New Guy), Williamson, came on board under Diamond Jim Doyle's tenure.

http://ethics.state.wi.us/eofr/pages/Who...
Chief Investment Officer Villa, David C. (608) 266-9734 david.villa@swib.state.wi.us 6/5/2006
Managing Director Mensink, Ronald (608) 267-2899 ron.mensink@swib.state.wi.us 9/1/2007
Portfolio Manager McCorkle, William (608) 266-8616 bill.mccorkle@swib.state.wi.us 9/27/2002
Executive Director Williamson, Michael (608) 266-9451 michael.williamson@swib.state.wi.us 5/31/2012

http://ethics.state.wi.us/eofr/pages/Who...
Executive Director Bozarth, Keith 6/25/2007

http://www.swib.state.wi.us/staff.aspx

Villa has a BA from Princeton University, an MA from Stanford University, and an MBA from Northwestern University.

Williamson has a BA and MA from the University of North Carolina

Governor Walker's annual salary is $144,423. Considering what these college-educated State employee retirement fund managers are raking in, I'm not sure Wisconsin could afford a Governor with a college degree.

Many state employees are losing part of their pensions, keep at it scooter, unemployed rising, pensions shrinking, people losing healthcare, Food share, more jobs will be lost and the list goes on what more could we ask for from the Idiot leading the state.

Incentive based pay should work both ways. Poor performance should merit lower pay.

A chimpanzee could have made money in the stock market the last few years.

This is a travesty. Money managers are grossly over compensated.

"Four employees who manage Wisconsin's pension fund are on track to receive six-figure bonuses for their 2008 performance while 20 others could get $25,000 or more, despite the loss of billions of dollars in the fund's assets that year as the global economy crashed, newly released records show."
Deferred or not, they still were eligable for the bonus.
"The board released records this week showing 48 out of 64 investment staff members were approved for bonuses, including a senior portfolio manager who will receive $150,500 if he stays and three others who could get $100,000 or more."

http://www.jsonline.com/business/6381857...

The bonuses are based on the current performance of the investments, not the losses that took place in 2008 and which affect retiree annuity payments over a five-year period. Retirees in 2014 will begin to see increases. Throughout the entire financial crisis, it should be noted, Wisconsin has retained its status as the most fully-funded public pension system in the nation. Current performance figures are here:
http://www.swib.state.wi.us/performance....

So let me get this straight. My pension has gone down for the past 4 years and is scheduled to do so again this year and 139 people that manage the retirement fund are getting bonuses, with one of them over $400k. This makes me sick. Their annual bonus should be tied to the amount of increase/decrease the retirees get. If I get a substantial increase because of their work, give them a bonus. If not, too bad. And...I am told that my benefit decreases in order to keep the fund from going down too much. How much did the 139 bonus recipients take the fund down? The rich get richer....and I get pissed off yet again.

This doesn't make sense. Retirees collecting pensions are getting pension payments cut, yet the money managers overseeing the pension funds are getting astronomical bonuses? Someone please explain how this can happen? Sounds more like legalized theft to me.