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CA.Gov
Governor Brown Says Cities on Their Own as Pension Tab Rises
In his final term as governor, Jerry Brown tells cities and states that they are on their own to solve their pension problems.
To read the full article in Bloomberg News CLICK HERE
He has a point, although the pension crisis is certainly not all the fault of local governments. Obviously, legislative measures to put the public pension system on a sustainable course would have been greatly welcomed, but local elected officials are the ones who were at the bargaining tables throughout the state when massive giveaways took place.
What we have noted is that local officials, once in office, find it difficult - or impossible - to take a stand against professionals who bargain on behalf of public employees. Sometimes, too, those elected leaders get too entrenched with the employees to make tough decisions. Additionally, some benefit by the very terms they are bargaining.
Then there is campaign funding, which is irresistible to many elected officials. If a Supervisor candidate, for instance, takes contributions from public unions, beware. This last is true on the State level as well.
A just released survey by CalPERS further shakes confidence in the current system. Here is an excerpt:
A new survey by the California Public Employees’ Retirement showed a steep drop in confidence in the $355 billion pension fund among government executives.
Fewer than half of the city managers and other senior government leaders who replied to the annual CalPERS survey said they felt confident that their retirement money was safe, a decline of about 15 percentage points from last year.
Here is a link to that article: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article211115234.html
We seem to be left with tougher than usual decisions moving forward. Evidently the State Legislature does not intend to actively pursue reform and washes their hands of local problems. City Managers have lost confidence in CalPERS, can't afford to get out of the system and will see their contributions double.
Gov. Brown suggests that 'maybe' the State Supreme Court will offer a way to cut pension benefits for current employees, but - and this is a BIG but - even if the court does allow this, it will be up to local elected officials to use those new tools.
Will they? Ask them. I have included email addresses for your elected officials as an attachment below.
Regards,Jody
CSPPwww.facebook.com/citizens4pensionreform.