So pay out 39%.
The “national crisis” of State and local pensions. It should NOT be a national problem that individual State and local politicians agreed to unsustainable pensions for unions just so they could get elected.
I’ll give a few microseconds of consideration to the plight of those union members right after I receive confirmation that they’ve found ALL union leaders for the past fifty years and have caused them to “sleep with the fishes”.
To keep the pension promise, you simply have to figure out how to solve: “1 + 1 = 17”. T’aint going to happen!
This situation is as if your dad promised to buy you a new Corvette if you got a 3.5 GPA all during high school. On graduation day, after years of effort, your mom says, “No way. We can’t afford that.”
Who is the jerk, you dad for lying all these years or your mom for telling the truth?
If you still believe your lying dad as he tries to blame your mom, you think your mom is the jerk-even though she is telling you the painful truth.
And that is the situation the American family is in today: your lying dad (Democrats) blames your truthful mom (Republicans) when she tells you that the family doesn’t have the money.
Outlaw deficit spending, or proceed to repudiation of debt.