They won’t give up and neither should we
San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed will not push his “pension theft” measure this year, but these people are not giving up. Fight goes on.
While we all celebrated when San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, announced he was not moving forward with his effort to get a measure on the ballot to destroy pensions for public sector employees, his supporters, were busy writing op/ed pieces and making appearances on TV.
If there was ever proof that we need to keep up the fight (send your op ed piece and demand equal time from your local media outlets for your side of the story) these two op/ed pieces that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Orange County register say it all.
Here’s an excerpt from the San Francisco Chronicle:
A lost opportunity for reform
Sarah Rice / Special to The Chronicle
San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed is doing the reasonable thing by postponing a critical pension reform measure after losing a legal ruling. California voters will need to wait on considering his solutions to a $200 billion gap in future retirement bills.
Reed may be the least popular Democrat in a state where public worker unions expect obedience from lawmakers. In his day job, he won a local ballot measure that obliged city workers to pay more for future benefits or face cheaper coverage. A judge reined in the scope of the bill in December after furious union protests.
Reed’s plan would allow state and local governments to negotiate future contributions or benefits. However, it would not affect any benefits that have already been earned by either current workers or retirees.
In a state where cities such as Stockton, Vallejo and San Bernardino teetered on the edge of bankruptcy — partly because of heavy pension obligations – the idea of cutting benefits must be considered. On the state level, two giant pension pools are in full damage-control mode, with one asking for bigger contributions from employers to shore up finances.
From the Orange County Register:
Pension reform delayed is reform denied
By Lisa Benson / Washington Post Writers Group
With some help from state Attorney General Kamala Harris, California’s public employee unions won the first round of a pension reform fight by preventing voters from weighing in on San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed’s public pension initiative.
Citing the attorney general’s slanted ballot summary for the measure (which likely harmed the measure’s chances of passage, and thus fundraising efforts), Mr. Reed halted his effort to place the measure on the November ballot and vowed to try again in 2016.
This is a shame, as such a reform cannot come too soon for cities and counties already struggling under the weight of their pension obligations. The initiative would have protected all pension and retiree health care benefits earned to date while allowing the state and local governments to reduce future, unearned benefits for existing employees.
Such a change is needed because the Assembly Bill 340 pension reforms enacted in 2012, while helpful, are not nearly enough to address the problem. Several academic studies have pegged the state’s unfunded pension liabilities in the vicinity of $400 billion to $500 billion, not counting an additional $65 billion unfunded liability for retiree health care.
Write a letter to the editor and let them know your point of view. You can E-mail to letters@ocregister.com. Please provide your name, city and telephone number (telephone numbers will not be published). Letters of about 200 words or videos of 30-seconds each will be given preference. Letters will be edited for length, grammar and clarity.
Read the rest of the report here.
Here’s a documentary film on YouTube posted on the PubSecAlliance site. Watch it and see who’s behind this effort to steal your pensions with lies, lies and more lies. Show it at your next association meeting.
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