CalPERS worse than Goldman Sachs

The hearing on the SB919 pension-reform bill is ending without a vote, because the committee lost its quorum, but it seems unlikely this is going to pass after hearing comments by committee Democrats. But Gov. Schwarzenegger’s pension adviser David Crane’s comments on behalf of pension reform were amazingly tough and on point and easily debunked the besides-the-point comments by Sen. Lou Correa, the Santa Ana Democrat who is trying to have it both ways, and by Denise Ducheny, the Chula Vista Democrat who can’t hide her hostility to the proposal. Her comments all come right out of the union playbook.

Speaking about CalPERS’ 1999 pension-increasing proposal, Crane argued, “It’s nothing short of astonishing that the CalPERS Proposal, which promoted the largest non-voter approved debt issuance in California history, was not accompanied by disclosures of risks or conflicts of interest.  Frankly I’ve never seen anything like the CalPERS sales document, which makes even Goldman Sachs’s alleged non-disclosure look like child’s play.”

And this:

“I have a special word for my fellow Democrats:  One cannot both be a progressive and be opposed to pension reform.  The math is irrefutable that the losers from excessive and unfunded pensions are precisely the programs progressive Democrats tend to applaud. Those programs are being driven out of existence by rising pension costs.”

The Dems clearly don’t want pension reform. They certainly aren’t going to go against the public sector unions. This issue will indeed be handled through an initiative.

–Steven Greenhut