Pension Armageddon: Can California voters avoid it?

Weekly Standard ^ | 06/26/2015 | BY STEPHEN EIDE

[SeekAndFind]

Not all Californians believe that drought is the greatest threat to their state’s future. Early this month, a bipartisan group of current and former local officials filed the “Voter Empowerment Act of 2016,” a statewide ballot measure aimed at reforming the politics of public pensions. Its passage would forbid politicians in California from lavishing expensive retirement benefits on workers without explicit voter approval.

The effort is being led by Carl DeMaio, a Republican former member of the San Diego city council, and Chuck Reed, a Democrat and former mayor of San Jose. If they prevail, the effects will be felt nationwide. A yes vote in this deep blue labor stronghold will strengthen the hand of reformers in other pension-plagued states, such as Illinois and New Jersey.

California’s pension struggles first gained national notoriety between 2009 and 2012. The financial crisis sent pension funds into steep decline, and the broader economic slump hammered public revenues from income, property, and sales taxes. Thus, short on cash with which to backfill their rapidly expanding pension deficits, the state government and all manner of municipalities were forced to slash services and raise tax rates.

Today, the main pension plans for state workers and teachers in California are about $190 billion short of what workers have been promised in benefits, despite the Dow Jones Industrial Average having nearly tripled in value since its March 2009 nadir. Not coincidentally, state and local governments’ recovery continues to trail that of corporations. The number of private sector jobs in California surpassed its pre-recession high in November 2013 and has kept climbing since. Local government employment, by contrast, is still down by about 90,000. This reduction in municipal workforces should not be seen as “right-sizing.” The cost of government has not declined,

[A CA Guy]

It could pass but you will see the unions paying 100 million or so on advertising to defeat it.

The California voter is selfish and those not attached to government are likely to vote for a fix. Can they be lied to or bribed on this though?
This is the 30 pieces of silver state.

[PGalt]

Legal Plunder Has Many Names

Now, legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on. All these plans as a whole — with their common aim of legal plunder — constitute socialism.

The Results of Legal Plunder

It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.

http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G020

Now, since under this definition socialism is a body of doctrine, what attack can be made against it other than a war of doctrine? If you find this socialistic doctrine to be false, absurd, and evil, then refute it. And the more false, the more absurd, and the more evil it is, the easier it will be to refute. Above all, if you wish to be strong, begin by rooting out every particle of socialism that may have crept into your legislation. This will be no light task.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Look for Obama and the Democrats to implement Operation Ghilarducci. Federal takeover of all IRA’s and 401K’s in order to bail out failing public pension funds.

[gingerbread]

Isn’t this one of the reasons that the GREEK economy is collapsing? And because the GREEK government refuses to change their “RETIREMENT LAWS”, the GREEK economy is collapsing before every body’s eyes. But because the voters of California refuses to rid themselves of these politicians that are leading them to destruction, the same thing that happened in GREECE will happen to California. Any body want to buy CALIFORNIA BONDS?

[orionrising]

I knew a member of the California Pension board about 10 years ago... he was building a rural farm and planting fruit trees.... As far from California as he could get... In Maine.

They know what they are doing.