POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

Public Pension Ballot Measures in California

Let's check how how public employee ballot measures did last Tuesday:

PUBLIC EMPLOYEE MEASURES
Defeats for public employees:
San Diego Proposition D: Half-cent sales tax tied to promises of pension reforms
San Jose Measures W: Allows city to offer future workers reduced retirement benefits
Bakersfield Measure D: Rolls back public safety retirement benefits for new hires
Carlsbad Measure G: Limits increases in public safety retirement benefits
Redding Measure A: Calls for phasing in employee CalPERS contributions
Redding Measure B: Calls for 5-year vesting for retiree health care
Menlo Park Measure L: Limits retirement for new hires, voter consent to raise
Pacific Grove Measure R: Limits city contributions to employee retirement
Riverside Measures L: Voter approval to change county public safety retirement
Riverside Measure M: Voter approval to raise county public safety retirement
San Jose Measure V: Limits arbitration awards to police and firefighters
Palo Alto Measure R: Firefighter union measure to prevent staffing cuts

Victory for public employees:
San Francisco Proposition B: Increases employee contribution toward health, pension

I want you to realize that some of those "defeats" weren't really defeats -- inasmuch they were milder measures compared to some items that had been threatened. But anyway, this is for just now.

We have an overview with more detail from Ed Mendel -- with some fun in the comments; just read the first two to get a flavor. And a separate overview from Steven Greenhut (check out Greenhut's book on public employee unions).

If I were a Calpers (or other California public union) member, I would take this as a warning signal. It might be best to come to the table to negotiate, before the right to negotiate one's terms are taken away. Let me remind once again: retired people cannot strike. And current workers may not strike on your behalf. As well, it is difficult to sue money into existence.

On a separate election note, a politician greatly misreading the electoral mood,
answered a question very poorly pre-election, defending the right to double-dip. Yes, it's legit, and yes, public employees might like the support in double-dipping....but the people paying for this benefit look upon it with a jaundiced eye. At the very least, Cooley could have decried double-dipping for himself and leave it at that. Or challenged his opponent. Or changed the subject.

I understand Cooley may yet win his race, but it's very close.

Meep

Meep is a member of the Irish Catholic mafia, having a suspiciously high number of green-eyed, red-haired friends. While she doesn’t have red hair herself [except when she goes into the sun (rare for any vampire)], she does have green eyes. She’s a raving Papist and is a life actuary on the side [i.e., she counts dead people]. An amateur pain-in-the-ass [willing to go pro!], she likes covering retirement, mortality, math, and education issues.

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