Posted on 06/07/2012 9:53:54 AM PDT by SmithL
Tuesday's landslide pension reform votes in San Diego and San Jose were just the early tremors in what could become a public pension earthquake by the end of this month.
The big question: What does this mean for pension reform legislation at the Capitol?
Gov. Jerry Brown, who has floated a 12-point pension reform plan, told a San Francisco Chronicle reporter on Wednesday that the vote in liberal San Jose was "a very powerful signal" that pension reform is "an imperative" that he's putting "at the top of the agenda." Brown thinks pension reform will make his tax initiative more palatable to voters in November, although he hasn't talked about it much until now.
Pension reformers hailed the news that supermajorities in two of California's biggest cities embraced pension benefit rollbacks for current employees – a legally murky idea – and not just future workers. It's a sign, they said, that the public is tired of feeding pensions while public services go to seed.
"To me, it was a brutal, brutal night for unions and the status quo," said Republican strategist Aaron McLear, referring also to a failed effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in a race considered a referendum on his decision to take on public employee unions.
Meanwhile, the unions downplayed Tuesday's results. Dave Low, chairman of union coalition Californians for Retirement Security, noted San Diego's Proposition B supporters outspent their opponents 8 to 1.
Why the disparity? The unions saw the polling and didn't want to spend on a lost cause. They're also saving up for an expected donnybrook over a November ballot measure that ends payroll deductions for political spending,
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Never thought I’d say it, but San Diego........WELCOME TO WISCONSIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here comes the bongo drums and freak shows.
I agree that they need to cut back, but cutting from the present pensioners is cruel and really unfair....
Well the problem is that everyone who begins work today and tomorrow will be under the old pension rules. The date needs to be immediately marked on the calendar as a date that the new pension rules start. Every day that goes by is another couple people under the old rules. Why people don’t understand this is beyond me. By the time this goes into effect, another couple thousand people will be under the old pension rules. Once you begin your first day of work, you are safe!!!!
I agree that they need to cut back, but cutting from the present pensioners is cruel and really unfair....
They won’t cut anybody’s pension who is in the system now or getting a pension. The people who will be affected by the new rules will the the people who begin work the day AFTER the date the new pension rules are implemented. Don’t worry about present day pension folks, they are fine.
Good to hear....
All pensions should be funded as they are earned to allow compound interest to accumulate the desired benefit. The idea that we can promise a pension in some distant future to a public employee, accept their services for twenty years without funding their pension, and then somehow come up with a fund at the end representing 20 years of accrued interest is dishonest and absurd. If you couldn’t budget an annual pension contribution for twenty years, how on earth will you come up with a twenty year accrual at the end? Its like running up someone else’s credit card knowing you have no means of discharging the liability.
Spare me what is FAIR for the lay about government workers. F’em they got theirs in high pay, low work, no lay off jobs. If they didn't save, let em starve or sign up for food stamps. Enough is enough. They are no better than those that work to pay the exhorbinant taxes to pay their bloated salaries and benefits.
The Walker Effect® taking shape, even in the Peoples Republic!
I have to agree. Whatever cuts there are will be small. Current retirees and employees will still have far better benefits packages than the vast majority of private sector workers. Retire in your 50s with a huge percentage of your (spiked) final salary as a pension? Cry me a river.
Even in WI, the cuts were pretty minimal. And in most cases, police and possible fire and EMS are not cut at all.
Bump to read later
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