“California taxpayers are paying pensions that exceed $100,000 a year to over 12,000 former state and local
government workers, including more than 9,000 state and local employees covered by the California Public
Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and over 3,000 former school administrators or teachers covered under the
California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS).”
“California taxpayers pay 85 percent of the health care premiums for most active state workers, 100 percent of the
health care costs for most state retirees and 90 percent of health care costs for their families.”
Excerpt from “How California’s Public Pension System Broke and How to Fix It”
August 13, 2010
When a friend told me, a couple of years ago, that his brother had retired as fire chief of a northern California city at age 55, with a $240,000 a year pension, plus medical and dental benefits, I had my first inkling of what is going on in the Golden State. Just a couple of months ago, I read a book called As America Aged by Roger Lowenstein, a financial writer who created the definitive portrait of Warren Buffet in the early ’90’s. I decided it would be my mission to alert everyone I know to the raiding of the public treasury that is going on via gold plated retirement benefits for public employees. But I got buried with other things, and then the Bell, California pay scandal hit national media about three weeks ago. There is a growing awareness among the civilian population, stripped of their pensions decades ago, lucky to have their employer fund a 401K, or lucky to have a job, that they’ve been had.
Here is a link to an excellent summary of the situation, produced by the Reason Foundation. Two excerpts will give you an idea of how important it is that California voters turn out to stem the bleeding that will, without doubt, put California into bankruptcy, or drive even more businesses out of state:
Full Study: How California’s Public Pension System Broke (and How to Fix It)
There is be a Battle Royale this coming election as public employee unions pour every possible dollar into convincing voters that those committed to pension reform are “anti-Cop”, “anti-Fire fighter”,” anti-Teacher”. The truth is, Unions are Big Business, and they are the primary reason why lay-offs are the only tool left to administrators. The state is so broke it is selling off the Orange County Fairgrounds. This is just one example of the cost of abusive pension agreements, that are essentially locked into the State’s constitution.
Please tell everyone you know about this situation, and tell them to vote only for politicians who declare, unequivocally, that they will end the Pension Outrage.
