Comments on: Is pension reform dead?

By: stevefromsacto

stevefromsacto — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:28:08 +0000

Oh, please, John. There is money now. We can tax oil production (check out the profits of the oil companies sometime). We can eliminate corporate tax breaks and close loopholes. We can fix our tax system to make it more stable and fairer.

It’s all a matter of choice. The Rabid Right says that the only way we can deal with the budget crisis is to target pensions, lay off public employees, and continue to slash health and human service programs. But we do have other choices.

As to so-called pension “reform”, there are two numbers that the Rabid Right will never mention. First is the number $2l,000. That’s the average yearly pension benefit paid out by CalPERS. That’s hardly a “gold-plated” pension, especially for those who aren’t eligible for Social Security.

The second number is 12 cents. That is the amount of every pension benefit dollar that is paid for by the state. As to the rest, 75 cents comes from CalPERS investments and 13 cents comes from employee contributions.

By the way, even if pension reform is enacted tomorrow, it won’t impact the state’s budget situation for years to come.

By: PRI

PRI — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:12:04 +0000

Once again, the Governator who promised us “Action! Action! Action!” has given us Inaction! Inaction! Inaction!

Postponing pension reform now only will make future reforms more draconian. There’s no money now. There will be even less money in the future.

California is broke.

America is broke.

The party’s over.

Get used to it.

— John Seiler

By: stevefromsacto

stevefromsacto — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:23:16 +0000

Poor Marcia Fritz. Last time you were involved in this, poor old Keith Richman’s anti-worker pension scheme was so legally flawed that the governor pulled his support. This time, neither the governor nor (Exaggerated) Meg were willing to even express their support. You’d think you would get the message by now. The people of California do not believe you should cut off survivor benefits for the survivors of police and fightfighters killed in the line of duty (yes, that was actually a part of the Richman plan). They do not believe that public employees should have to give up secure pensions for risky 401(k) crapshoots.

So sorry you are exasperated, Marcia. But the governor and EMeg both are smart enough to understand that if you put that measure on the ballot, you will LOSE. And that’s the reason we “vote for people.”

Now as to giving all the offices to the unions, maybe that’s not such a bad idea. They sure couldn’t screw things up worse than they already are with Arnold and the “head-on-a-stick” anti government crazies effectively tying our state in knots.