State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald. (File photograph)
State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald is once more calling for creation of a state-managed funding program for Iowans who don’t have a pension or retirement plan by way of their employer.
“If you happen to’re a waitress otherwise you work on the lumber yard or a small enterprise — anyplace, they don’t provide retirement plans,” Fitzgerald mentioned Thursday afternoon throughout a speech on the Des Moines Register’s Political Soapbox on the Iowa State Truthful.
Fitzgerald first proposed a “Retirement Financial savings Iowa” program in 2016, to be managed by the State Treasurer’s workplace.
“This can be a plan the place you can put in 3% of your wage, ship it into the state treasurer’s workplace. The employer — it doesn’t value them any cash as a result of by federal legislation they’ll’t put any cash into it, however it permits these of us to begin saving,” Fitzgerald mentioned. “As Warren Buffet says, that’s the magic to getting wealthy — get within the behavior of saving.”
Fitzgerald’s workplace has managed the Faculty Financial savings Iowa program since in 1998. It presently has $7.5 billion in belongings for 280,000 accounts arrange by dad and mom and grandparents to cowl school bills for the following era. Fitzgerald mentioned it is smart to arrange an identical program, so Iowans can put aside cash for retirement with out paying taxes on it.
“Even when they’re solely placing away $20 each two weeks, however after a couple of years, a few of these younger individuals may have one thing and one thing to construct on,” Fitzgerald mentioned, “and with half of the individuals in Iowa approaching retirement age with no pension or retirement advantages, I believe it’s a significant issue.”
Fitzgerald, a Democrat, is the nation’s longest-serving state treasurer. Roby Smith, a state senator from Davenport, is the Republican difficult Fitzgerald’s bid for an eleventh time period.
