Gov. Brown Steps Into Snakes Nest<\/i><\/p>\n
by Brian Leubitz<\/p>\n
No matter which side of this argument you are on, pension reform is fraught with political landmines. Of course you have labor and the far right, the traditional foes on the issue. But as this NPR report points out, there are a whole lot of other issues and stakeholders to consider. <\/p>\n
Because of the balance of power between state and local government, pension systems in California have many levels. As Shrek would say, it’s like an onion. An onion, that depending on whom you ask, is either just a bit underfunded, or half a trillion underfunded. While that number is extremely pessimistic at best, and more likely wildly fantastical, there is some non-trivial level of unfunded pension liability hanging over the state that hasn’t been fully addressed.<\/p>\n
And of course, Gov. Brown wouldn’t have cruised to victory in 2010 without the support of labor. But all that being said, this week he outlined a “12-step” pension reform proposal. You can read the full plan here (PDF)<\/a>, but here are the 12 points<\/p>\n * Equal Sharing of Pension Costs: All Employees and Employers Obviously many of these points are not very popular with state employees, while others are a matter of details. But generally, labor is not that happy about concessions without going through the collective bargaining process.<\/p>\n “Unions across California have negotiated major retirement concessions, including increased payments by employees and two-tier benefits,” Low said. “These concessions have already saved the state, cities, counties and other entities hundreds of millions of dollars. We are strongly opposed to imposing additional retirement rollbacks without bargaining.”(SacBee<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n No matter how it’s done, this not going to be a pretty or smooth process for anybody involved.<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gov. Brown Steps Into Snakes Nest<\/i><\/p>\n by Brian Leubitz<\/p>\n
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* “Hybrid” Risk-Sharing Pension Plan: New Employees
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* Increase Retirement Ages: New Employees
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* Require Three-Year Final Compensation to Stop Spiking: New Employees
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* Calculate Benefits Based on Regular, Recurring Pay to Stop Spiking: New Employees
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* Limit Post-Retirement Employment: All Employees
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* Felons Forfeit Pension Benefits: All Employees
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* Prohibit Retroactive Pension Increases: All Employees
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* Prohibit Pension Holidays: All Employees and Employers
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* Prohibit Purchases of Service Credit: All Employee
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* Increase Pension Board Independence and Expertise
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* Reduce Retiree Health Care Costs: State Employee<\/p>\n