There is another possible solution, caregiver takes early retirement to care for elderly parent and starts to collect SS when old enough and doesn't lose anything but the time and effort caring for elderly parent. MC1 you are correct about the cost of keeping someone in a nursing home and without some kind of insurance policy the cost will bankrupt most people. Medicare and Medicaid doesn't pay the nursing homes nearly enough to cover their expenses and I fear it will get even worse3 in the future.

If the government (LBJ) didn't pass medicaid way back when....we wouldn't be in this spot today! The government should have stayed out of the nursing home business decades agao!!!

Over the last few decades, the private sector would have seen an obvious need, insurance companies would have written new elder care policies and people would have made previsions for their senior years decades ago.

People wouldn't have fallen for that false sense of security that 'the government will take care of me'!! Just like social security and the new obamacare!!

why do we think all this muti-senior apartments are going up all over......the government doesn't want full-fledged buildings.......and certainly not
ones just for bathing/feeding/talking/walking/behaviors.......buildings will only be for physical/medical issues......the government WILL be subsidising
home visits to these senior apartments.......as the rents already are.......keep digging........

How do you layoff the golf "pro", Mayor SOS, Mastro, all DEM City Council-to save the firefighters?

     Now the curb tax has been dropped. Hurray! Maybe someone will now present Union College, Proctor's and Ellis with a million dollar tax bill payable? No pay-no services. Naah, pathetic Mayor SOS will just increase the property tax and garbage "fees". All we hear from the DEM nit wits is what you can't cut. Make a list of what you must cut. Start with the City Free Car Fleet, Mayor's JEEP, free cellphones, wasteful travel, 3 City pools, Deputy Mayor, Department of Development, DSIC, Code Enforcers, contributions to all nonprofits but the Food Pantry.

Quoted from Shadow

There is another possible solution, caregiver takes early retirement to care for elderly parent and starts to collect SS when old enough and doesn't lose anything but the time and effort caring for elderly parent. MC1 you are correct about the cost of keeping someone in a nursing home and without some kind of insurance policy the cost will bankrupt most people. Medicare and Medicaid doesn't pay the nursing homes nearly enough to cover their expenses and I fear it will get even worse3 in the future.

Oh my gosh, can you imagine a state worker, or a teacher, taking "early retirement" after 15 years of service and what the public would say?   "15 years of work, at age 40 or 45 and pension for life?

No, the idea of "early retirement" would not work.  That would require a law that all employers provide for employees to retire maybe as early as age 40.  If a parent is 30, 40 years old when they have the child, not unusual in the post "women's rights" era for women to postpone having children, so the caregiver (adult child) has parent of 70 or 80 years old and caregiver is 40 most likely with elementary school children to raise.  

What adult children can afford to take such a cut in pay?  And unfortunately more and more employers are getting greedy and eliminating pensions.  What kind of pension could a secretary at GE get at age 40?   And how about an employee of Walmart - no pension at all.  Laws would have to be changed to allow people age age 40 or so to start taking out of their 401K's etc, and then try to make that money last 40 years iinstead of 20 years by retiring at 65.

And ya know what is interesting?  Your parent might move in with you, and perhaps the parent didn't have assets.  Maybe the parent worked in Walmart where there's not even a pension nor any health insurance in retirement.  And with low paying jobs, we'll say the parent never owned a home.  So now, the person is elderly with maybe $300 a month in Soc Sec.  If the person stays in their own apartment, that person probably will get food stamps, medicaid, etc.  But if the person cannot live alone, so they person moves in with their child.  The person loses those benefits.  Then the caregiver child is supporting the parent.  The caregiver child can cover his/her own children on health insurance not can't cover the parent.  Caregivers don't get any tax credits for caring for parents.  All kinds of tax credits for your children---regular dependent exemptions when you file taxes and all kins of tax credits and if you have lots more kids, you might even be eligible for earned income credit.   But take care of a parent, even if you take parent to day care so you can work (and day care depends on the parent's condition), then you are giving up virtually everything in your life, financially stressed out from taking care of parent, but the government doesn't help you

Quoted from mikechristine1

  Caregivers don't get any tax credits for caring for parents.  All kinds of tax credits for your children---regular dependent exemptions when you file taxes and all kins of tax credits and if you have lots more kids, you might even be eligible for earned income credit.   But take care of a parent, even if you take parent to day care so you can work (and day care depends on the parent's condition), then you are giving up virtually everything in your life, financially stressed out from taking care of parent, but the government doesn't help you

I believe that if you have a parent living with you, they can be claimed on your income tax return as a dependent.

yes they become a dependent........and unfortunately....if a parent worked at walmart or anywhere there was no pension---it was THEIR choice.....
fortunately it is NOT the governments responsibility to choose FOR them.....or to even care for them.......

now that there is talk about 'taking' all the 401k and pensions to redistribute will we be happy? I hope NOT.....but they will use the elderly and the
kids as podium pucks........

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Taxes hiked, jobs cut
By Lauren Stanforth Staff Writer
Published: 12:00 a.m., Tuesday, November 2, 2010

SCHENECTADY -- Fourteen firefighters would lose their jobs and property taxes will go up 4.9 percent under the new 2011 budget approved by City Council Monday night.

City Council worked until the last minute to revise Mayor Brian U. Stratton's proposed $76.9 million spending plan, which originally called for eliminating 19 firefighter positions and a 4 percent tax rate increase to help close a $6 million budget gap. Fire Chief Robert Farstad had since clarified Stratton's numbers, saying the department has three trainees in the academy who would also lose their jobs.

The council voted 5 to 2 Monday to approve a new $77 million budget, which restores eight firefighter positions, raises the city's garbage fee by $21 a year to restore parks and property maintenance cuts, and has Ellis Medicine kicking in $40,000 to keep Quakenbush and Front Street pools open.

City Council said they also saved a firehouse from being closed. But Farstad said outside the meeting he wasn't sure if he could promise that with the remaining layoffs, which he said would still gut his shifts by about 20 percent.

However, firefighter jobs could still be saved because the union's Local 28 is currently negotiating with the city about possible savings to rescue their co-workers' jobs. Local 28 president David Orr, who attended the City Council meeting Monday night with about 20 other firefighters in tow, said the negotiations are continuing but he could not provide details. The firefighters contract expired almost a year ago.

Stratton announced the Ellis gift at Monday night's meeting, part of his renewed effort to get the city's largest non-profits to pay something for the fire and police services they receive. Stratton initially proposed a curb fee that would have spread a tax increase not only among residential property owners but non-profits as well. But he told City Council last month he had to scrap the plan, because it couldn't come close to bringing in an estimated $1.4 million the city needed. Stratton said he continues to appeal to Union College to pay something, too..................>>>>...............>>>>.................http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Taxes-hiked-jobs-cut-782318.php

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SCHENECTADY
City still unsure if sale of tax liens will trim layoffs
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com.

    It’s been three days since Schenectady opened bids to buy its delinquent tax liens, but city offi cials still don’t know whether the sale will yield enough money to add more fi refighters to the 2011 budget.
    “These are so complicated, and huge documents,” Finance Commissioner Ismat Alam said, adding that she’s called each bidder for explanations.
    She plans to work all weekend. But even so, she doesn’t expect to have an answer until late next week.
    The offers vary based on which liens the company would buy.
    Alam also asked them how much they would charge to collect the delinquent taxes for the city rather than buying the liens outright.
    When a company buys a tax lien, it can collect the taxes and interest from the property owner directly but must pay for foreclosure costs and take the risk that some owners will never pay.
    If the city hires a company to collect the delinquent taxes, the city gets all of the interest. And the city retains control of the liens, allowing the City Council to sell abandoned properties to new owners without first buying back the liens and, sometimes, also paying interest on those liens.
    The council put a new position in the budget to collect taxes, at a cost of $90,000 in salary and benefi ts. It’s not yet clear whether that position would be retained for minor collections if the city also hires a private collection fi rm.
    The council added the position partly because the city could not sell all its liens this year. American Tax Funding refused to buy those it considered too difficult to collect, and the state would not allow the city to put the liens out to bid. ...........................>>>>..................>>>>..................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01001&AppName=1