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CAPITOL
Report: Boomers to place strain on cities
Cash-strapped communities will face tough choices
BY MICHAEL HILL The Associated Press

   Aging baby boomers in upstate New York will likely place a concentrated demand for services in cities and older suburbs already facing financial challenges, according to a Federal Reserve report released Tuesday.
   The 65-and-older population is projected to increase by 40 percent in upstate areas from 2005 to 2030 — part of a national trend that is expected to increase the need for government-aided services ranging from health care to social welfare programs, particularly in and around the region’s largest cities, the Buffalo branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported.
   “In upstate New York, high-needs seniors tend to be concentrated in metropolitan areas, cities and suburbs with sluggish economic and population growth,” according to the report.
   The four major metropolitan areas upstate — Albany, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse — each reported a higher percentage of older residents in the 2000 census than the national average. Demographers who have studied the trend believe it reflects an aging population coupled with a “brain drain” of younger residents to other parts of the country.
   The Fed report notes that those metropolitan areas also have a rela- tively high concentration of older adults likely to rely on services — that is, seniors who are either disabled, poor, living alone or older than 74.
   Looking at where seniors live in upstate New York, researchers found that older suburbs, which experienced most of their growth before 1960, have the highest percentage of people aged 65 and older: 18.2 percent in the 2000 census. The study suggests this is because families with children tend to settle in newer suburbs farther from city centers. While the region’s cities have a lower concentration of seniors — 12.3 percent — they still have a relatively high proportion of highneeds seniors, according to the report.
   The Fed researchers said that having to increase senior care could be a challenge in those older suburbs and inner cities because many of the areas already face an eroding tax base and infrastructure in need of repairs.
   “In many upstate New York communities, where the increasing demand for services and infrastructure takes place in an environment of fiscal stress, local governments will likely face difficult decisions,” according to the report.
   Bill Ferris, New York state lobbyist for the AARP, said the Fed study did a good job sketching out the challenges government faces in the future. He added that any remedy — be it tax credits or respite care — would need to address the spouses, children and other caregivers who provide the majority of senior care.
   “There needs to be a focus on the individuals who provide the majority of long-term care services in the state, and that’s the family caregiver,” Ferris said.  

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Marijuana will be legal I'm sure....just watch AARP in action.......

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Baby boomers didn't hurt Social Security  
First published: Wednesday, October 24, 2007

I was annoyed to see John de Rosier's recent cartoon depicting "baby boomers" as a storm cloud looming over poor little "Social Security" who says, "I think I'm about to get soaked."
As a baby boomer, I am put off by the growing attitude that we are enemies of the state simply because we hope to benefit from the social contract we've been investing in throughout our lives.

  
If we will command a large sum of money from the Social Security system in retirement, it should also be remembered that we have paid a large sum of money into the Social Security system during our working years.

If those officials charged with the stewardship of those funds have failed so badly as to put benefits in jeopardy for my generation or those following, then it isn't the baby boomers who deserve the blame.

Maybe the elements of the cartoon should be rearranged. The cloud could be labeled "badly managed Social Security system" and the little fellow about to get "soaked" could be labeled "baby boomer."

JEFFREY MATTHEWS
Clifton Park

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There are four separate trust funds. For Social Security, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund pays retirement and survivors benefits, and the Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund pays disability benefits. (The two trust funds are jointly designated as OASDI.) For Medicare, the Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund pays for inpatient hospital and related care. The Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI) Trust Fund comprises two separate accounts: Part B, which pays for physician and outpatient services, and Part D, which covers the prescription drug benefit that began in 2006. Medicare benefits are provided to most people age 65 and over and to most individuals who receive Social Security disability benefits.

What Were the Administrative Expenses in 2006? Administrative expenses, as a percentage of total expenditures, were:


                                                    OASI    DI    HI    SMI  
Administrative expenses 2006      0.7    2.5    1.5    1.6