Posted on 01/23/2011 10:46:46 AM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO -- Republicans have yet to emerge with an official set of demands they'd want met before considering Gov. Jerry Brown's budget proposal, but pension reform will top the list once they do.
Sen. Mimi Walters, R-Laguna Hills, is preparing a package of pension reform bills she said must be addressed before taking up taxes. Among her reforms is legislation requiring all new state employees to enter 401(k)-style benefit plans.
"We want reforms in place before there's any discussion about tax increases," said Walters, the GOP's nominee last fall for state treasurer who was trounced by incumbent Bill Lockyer. "I do know there's not support at all to even put it on the ballot without significant pension reforms."
Brown has proposed cutting $12.5 billion in expenditures and asking voters to extend for five years temporary taxes on personal income, sales and autos in an attempt to solve a $25.4 billion deficit.
Brown said last week he intends to unveil his own pension proposal "in the coming weeks," but does not want to tie it to budget negotiations with Republicans.
...
Soaring pension liabilities -- at $6 billion a year and as much as $700 billion in future years -- have become a central issue for voters, many of whom see it as a primary reason the state is in decline. Brown's own pollster, Jim Moore, documented the depth of frustration over pension costs that crosses party lines in a poll of 1,000 likely voters late last year.
Public employee pensions are a very serious issue for 62 percent of those polled, with another 23 percent saying it's somewhat serious. Among them, 54 percent were Democrats, 59 percent were independent and 76 percent Republican.
Nearly three-fourths of the voters said they would support limiting public employee pensions and salaries.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
correct title
GOP senator: No pension reform, no vote on taxes
GO MIMI!!
the best thing to do is to let the socialists
destroy the state further,
and then after people have had enough,
a new republican majority will emerge.
The GOP brand is dead in CA. And coincidentally, so is CA itself.
The Republican brand is very close to being dead in the U.S.
Wrong link. I know Duf. He promised everything and delivered nothing.
The California Republican legislators should all resign en masse...
The state already owes up to 700 billion in pension liabilities. Our credit is shot, we are bankrupt, and the "progressives" are looting every last dollar they can find.
Once they have finished picking the bones, they will move on to Texas or Florida and bring them some fairness and social justice.
And the republicans will stay to pick up the tab in California.
Republicans in California “as a brand,” said former GOP party chair Duf Sundheim, “are dead.”
Mission accomplished then huh Duf? FU
Gov. Moonbeam created this mess his first term, let him take the blame for its collapse.
I do not like it!
Less money for me when I finally retire.
So, if the rats come up with some smoke-and-mirrors, twenty-years-down-the-road-it-might-help “pension reform”, the Republicans will sign onto Democrat tax hikes?? Wow. The Republicans need to simply say, “Hey rats, your tax hikes are off the table. Go have yourselves a happy circle jerk.”
Only if they're fools.
Who wants to be "the last white farmer in Zimbabwe"?
Public Employees have always insisted they are worth the extra taxes, so I say we should hoist them by their own petard. A new tax, a surtax on public employee pension benefits would automatically reduce the future pension liabilities, right ? Let’s see how they like a 50% surtax on public employee pensions and benefits that exceed $40,000/yr. And it avoids the need to renegotiate all those union contracts — those agreements never guaranteed future taxes wouldn’t affect their benefits.
Together with a ten year freeze on hiring, pay, and promotions, we could cut the size of government in CA by half.
I like the way you think.
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