Powerful people behind pension grab

In California a group of mayors is trying to pass a law so they don’t have to pay their city’s employees what they were promised under a contractual agreement when they signed up for the job. If they are successful, the repercussions, not just in California but everywhere else, will be a disaster for law enforcement officers and every other public sector employee.

The proposal “breaks the promise of a secure retirement made to millions of Californians,” said Dave Low, chairman of the labor-backed Californians for Retirement Security. “It will allow public employers to unilaterally cut the retirement benefits promised to current law enforcement officers, teachers, firefighters and school bus drivers.” His organization represents more than 1.6 million current and former public workers.

The mayors of San Jose, San Bernardino, Santa Ana, Anaheim and Pacific Grove are sponsoring the bill and are being backed by powerful out-of-state think tanks and billionaires like the Manhattan Institute and Texas billionaire John Arnold who are dedicated to shrinking the government, privatizing public sector jobs, slashing pensions and other benefits and eiminating collective bargaining rights They will need to collect more than 870,000 signatures to get the measure on the November 2014 ballot. It will be real test of the messaging and tactics of the public employee unions to see if they can defeat the bill.

Contracts in California have already been broken. In 2012 voters in San Jose, California’s third-largest city, approved a ballot initiative allowing current employees to pay more to keep their existing retirement plan or switch to a more modest plan while forcing new employees into a lower-cost plan.

In San Jose the effort has been a disaster for the city. Half the cops in the last academy class are actively thinking about joining another agency after just a few weeks into their field training. The sworn staff totals a little more than 1000 today, down from the 1,400 sworn officers five years ago when a string of layoffs, pay cuts and other austerity measures spurred massive retirements and resignations.

Chuck Reed, the mayor of San Jose, appears to be lead politician fighting for the ballot measure effort. If passed it will give politicians the right to unilaterally revoke contracts with city employees. Reed and the other mayors are receiving substantial support from billionaire activists and right wing think tanks determined to give politicians the power to change the terms of the deal after it’s been agreed to.

The courts have clearly established that California public employees have a vested right to the level of benefits promised to them when they are first employed but if the ballot measure passes then all contractual rights in California will be in jeopardy.

Worried about protecting tax cuts for their supporters and friends and dtermined to drastically reducing the size of government by turning over jobs traditionally done by the public sector to profit making companies, these public officials are still selling the lie that pensions have caused our economic woes. It’s been a successful tactic favored by those that want direct control over pension funds in order to move that money directly into Wall Street coffers.

But for guys like Mayor Reed and the folks at the Manhattan Institute there are problems on the horizon. Some courts have ruled that legal contracts between local governments and their employee unions and associations must be honored and cannot be changed arbitrarily. Also it seems like fewer people are falling for the “we have to cut pensions, social security, wages and health care and increase defense spending” pitch.

But the threat is a real one and we all have to come together and mount a well organized, sustained effort to beat back this ballot measure. If we fail and it passes it could be the last nail in the coffin of collective bargaining for public employees not just in California but everywhere.

Read the full CalPERS press release on the ballot measure.

Read the statement from the Los Angeles Police Protective League.

A group calling itself Public Sector Inc. calls the LAPD union’s analysis of the bill allowing local governments to scrap contracts with their public employees, “an absurd spin.” Good news here is that the LAPD opinion is getting noticed.

Bad News is that Public Sector Inc is a front organization of the Manhattan Institute. One of their hashtags is @PensionTsunami). Here’s how they describe their mission.

Public employee unions and other groups dependent on taxpayer funding have long pushed for higher spending to benefit their members, clients, employees and other stakeholders. Together, they represent a powerful force—Public Sector Inc—dedicated to the preservation of the budgetary status quo in recession-ravaged state capitals and city halls throughout the country.

This website is a one-stop-shop for the latest news, analysis and research about the issues facing the American taxpayer in the face of Public Sector Inc. It provides a national forum to probe problems and develop solutions at the state and local level, bringing together the nation’s top experts from around the country.