We need legislation in all states that either puts all public employee pensions on a defined contribution basis or barring that:
to rights to a full pension at an age no higher than the median age at which non-governmental employees retired in the previous year;
for a pension amount not higher than the median pension (adjusted for income) that non-governmental employees retired in the previous year;
and with future pension increases scheduled to be given at a rate not higher than the median of such increases (if any) scheduled to be given to non-governmental employees retired in the previous year.
To my mind, we need a revolution that returns all existing (now being paid) governmental pensions to those standards.
I fully agree but good luck in passing such laws. There is a group in California trying to put similar legislation on the ballot. This group has a daunting job to get the petition on the ballot and then to pass it.
We do not have an unfunded liability problem. We have a compensation problem. In many states, public employees are receiving on average hundreds of thousands of dollars of hidden deferred compensation. We need full and clear disclosure of public employee compensation with sensible limits on public employee compensation.