It appears that Governor Jerry Brown\u2019s recently unveiled 12-Point Public Employee Pension Reform Plan is gaining traction over a wide swath of California voters and not just fiscal conservatives. Periodically the Sacramento Bee publishes an interesting debate between two writers titled \u201cHead to Head.\u201d Head to Head pits conservative Ben Boychuk and liberal Pia Lopez on a wide range of political issues. The November 2, 2011-piece caught my eye. The question debated between Mr. Boychuk and Ms. Lopez was: \u201cDoes Brown\u2019s pension reform plan go far enough in curbing costs?\u201d Not surprisingly, Mr. Boychuk says it does not but give Governor Brown credit for a good start. I was most surprised, in fact shocked, that Ms. Lopez supported Governor Brown\u2019s pension reform plan. Ms. Lopez sets forth a thoughtful analysis of the Brown Plan and concludes that while it does go far enough it is in fact a good idea.<\/p>\n
Ms. Lopez\u2019s opinions are consistent with a recent LA Times poll which found that over 75% of State Democrats supported significant public employee pension reform. California\u2019s Public Sector employee unions should note the direction of public opinion and plan accordingly. While there seems to be wide public support for the Brown Plan, it still has to pass the Democrat-controlled Legislature before it ever reaches voters as a ballot initiative\u2013a total longshot. Notwithstanding, the Brown Plan is tame compared to other pension reform plans that may show up on next year\u2019s ballot such as a 100% defined contribution plan and mandatory freezes on all pay levels tackling the problem of the massive underfunding of existing pension obligations. Recently, a Little Hoover Commission report found that the ten largest pension plans in California had a collective 240 billion shortfall over the next 30 years. Critics argue that the Brown Plan does not come remotely close to meeting this shortfall.<\/p>\n
For today\u2019s California public sector employee union it is imperative that they keep their enemies close and their friends closer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It appears that Governor Jerry Brown\u2019s recently unveiled 12-Point Public Employee Pension Reform Plan is gaining traction over a wide swath of California voters and not just fiscal conservatives. Periodically the Sacramento Bee publishes an interesting debate between two writers titled \u201cHead to Head.\u201d Head to Head pits conservative Ben Boychuk and liberal Pia Lopez […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caindependentteachers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caindependentteachers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caindependentteachers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caindependentteachers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caindependentteachers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/caindependentteachers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9248,"href":"https:\/\/caindependentteachers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9247\/revisions\/9248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caindependentteachers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caindependentteachers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caindependentteachers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}