Posted on 06/06/2012 7:37:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Voters in two major California cities overwhelmingly approved cuts to retirement benefits for city workers in what supporters said was a mandate that may lead to similar ballot initiatives in other states and cities that are struggling with mounting pension obligations.
Supporters had a simple message to voters in San Diego and San Jose: Pensions for city workers are unaffordable and more generous than many private companies offer, forcing libraries to slash hours and potholes to go unfilled.
"The public is frustrated," said San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio, a Republican who staked his mayoral bid on the pension measure and advanced to a November runoff in Tuesday's election to lead the nation's eighth-largest city.
In San Diego, 66 percent voted in favor of Proposition B, while 34 percent were opposed. Nearly 97 percent of precincts were tallied by early Wednesday.
The landslide was even bigger in San Jose, the nation's 10th-largest city. With all precincts counted, 70 percent were in favor of Measure B and 30 percent were opposed.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
At some point, in the very near future, mayors & governors & a conservative, patriotic president (if there is one that can be found) will need to tell these RAT bastard liberal activist judges to simply just STFU and NO, we will no longer acknowledge or listen to their legislative unconstitutional edicts. And then we need to garnish their wages & homes & lifestyles to pay for the havoc they are causing. If this ever happened, their activism would cease & desist in a heartbeat after about 4-5 of these incidents.
I’d take it further. For many government jobs you don’t even need the positions. Start with zero based budgeting for every job. You’d be able to eliminate 5-15% without incurring public ire because their jobs are so obviously unneeded.
We need a Live Action crew to film government workers in the execution of their duty. Film them doing nothing, chatting, driving around aimlessly. Every afternoon there is a 4 man public works crew that shows up for the last 30-45 minutes of the day and parks near my house to kill the time.
They’re gone now as I’ve complained, likely hiding somewhere else. It would have been better had I filmed them day after day. I wish I had.
Naturally, he moved out of California and moved to Idaho.
As with rolling back anti-gun laws . . . small steps, small steps.
“If the court declares it unconstitutional, the only alternative is city bankruptcy.”
Another poster has suggested that if this happens we need to apply “rope therapy” as needed! Seriously though, this is a key problem with which we must deal as a country as we take these steps to take it back from the PE unions.
Social Security checks are bad enough.
_______________________________________
That’s where I have to disagree with you. I worked as a small businessman for my final 18y of work after working 20 years for a company. On average I’d have to pay 10-12k per year into my social security fund. Over and above income taxes. That social security is my money 100% of it! I’d be happy to get back what’s in my “account” with zero interest, but please don’t insinuate that I’m getting something for free.
It’ll get dragged in to court and the voters will be told to pound sand.
This was my first thought as well!
Yep, California judges. “You vote; we decide!”
That's what they are doing...The pensions are part of their wages for the work they did today and yesterday that they trusted the Gov't to hold for them...The Gov't spent it instead...
You wanna chop their wages, go ahead...But don't cheat them out of their own money that is owed to them...
I’m not cheating anybody out of anything. As has been said, “They trusted the gov’t” and it was the gov’t that cheated them. (The gov’t also cheated future citizens of the municipality by promising pay down the road under a totally different administration).
...And pensions are not part of wages. I’m all for giving current employees a HIGHER wage if that’s what they deserve from their willing employers in the community. But I’m against signing up future generations for paying pensions for folks that work for me now.
Just my take on it. I’m paying these retirees and they never worked for me. They worked for someone 40 years ago who presumed on me to pay pensions in the next century.
the damn is breaking, Republicans seem to be finally winning the financial argument.
Now if we can just make some progress on social issues, we can get this country straightened out.
Most people who rant that Social Security is a free ride, forget that the Social Security fund was raided to pay for yesterdays and today's political solutions that they benefited from, instead of being left as a retirement fund for the future.
The very ones who complain about the free ride, rode Social Security into the ground for free! Let them pay back all the monies taken for their darling political projects to protect green frogs or study sexual habits of Chinese hookers, then Social Security will have plenty for the people that deposited into it their entire lives.
I’m hearing Dionne Warwick in my head.
I recently got a job in IT with my local county. I’m in my early 50s mind you. The majority of the workforce is in their 50s and believe that they are owed a pension and that early retirement is some sort of right.
They’ve been there for at least 20 plus years; have never upgraded their skills beyond Windows XP (and I’m sure they went kicking and screaming with that) and are overpaid and underworked. I actually enjoy it when my colleagues are off because I feel like I’m working in the private sector again (their workload plus my workload equals average private sector individual workload).
There’s a “programmer” that has never gone beyond Foxpro and is making twice what I do yet relies on ME to sysprep and image Windows 7 machines so that he can “slum it” by deploying my handiwork!!
Tell your SIL I want restitution for my unjust 12-year incarceration in the Schoolag Archipelago.
It should be a ripple effect across the nation.
FYI
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.