The retirement benefits here in NJ are the silent killer that those employees don’t even want discussed (until it is time to trim them). If these were part of the compensation discussion, and Jerseyans knew how much the true present value of these teachers’ pay was, there would be a riot (followed by more white people leaving NJ even faster than they are now).
That was a big issue in CA as well; how can our states attract businesses, taxpayers, or wealthy people when they know they are just buying shares in a MASSIVE IOU?
I actually worked for a PEU in CA and the things I learned about union politics were mind boggling. Taxpayers are the enemy to them. And they’ve got the best retirement gig because the, unlike private business that can go bankrupt, the gov’t will never lose their revenue source, the taxpayers, and can force higher taxes to pay pensions.