California civil service unions in denial on pension costs

Sacramento Bee ^ | 1/23/12 | Dan Walters

[SmithL]

Whenever someone suggests that California's public employee pension systems need reform, civil service unions react dismissively, often with attacks on the credentials or even the morals of critics.

When, for example, a Public Policy Institute of California poll found strong support – even among public workers themselves – for Gov. Jerry Brown's middle-of-the-road pension reform plan, the union-backed Californians for Retirement Security reacted thusly:

"These poll results are not surprising. They amount to more fallout from a sustained and unrelenting misinformation campaign being fed to Californians," and continued: "Millions of public servants in California are doing their jobs and planning their futures with the promise of retirement security made to them. Even they are being peppered, however, with misleading and disproportionate examples of the tiny fraction of six-figure pensions and isolated cases of abuse. Pensions equal less than 3 percent of this state's beleaguered budget, while California corporations swim in profits and are dodging contributing tens of billions to state coffers through a slew of tax breaks."

A day after that poll was published, a research team based at Stanford University and headed by former Democratic Assemblyman Joe Nation released an updated analysis of state and local pension funds, concluding that they are hundreds of billions of dollars underfunded, and unless reformed, will seriously erode future financing of schools, health care and other services.

[SmithL]

The irony is that the hundreds of thousands of teachers, firefighters, police officers, clerks, janitors, garbage collectors and other public employees whose futures depend on the systems have the most to lose if they are not reformed.

But it's the Union bosses who have the most to lose if the current system is reformed.

[Vaduz]

California received 600 billion in stimulus money for new jobs and yet the teachers received a 12% pay raise.
Unionss own California,Ford,GM and MoPar left in the 60’s and it never got better.

[blueunicorn6]

“Stick ‘em up!”
“Why are you robbing me?”
“Look at that guy over there with the big car.”
“What’s that got to do with you robbing me?”
“Nothing....seems to work for the Democrats.”

[eyeamok]

Dear Union Leaders, What if our CHILDREN decide they do not want to pay YOUR DEBTS? Do they have that right?? Please explain to me the Moral and or Legal Justification behind forcing the CHILDREN INTO INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE. Because that is exactly what this is, forcing the children and the unborn to pay our DEBTS. If you do not believe it is SLAVERY, please explain what it is then.