It's not surprising that the private sector has an enormous interest in proposals to reform public sector pensions systems.
California's economic challenges combined with a $9 billion budget deficit and unfunded pension obligations mean government is in distress and seeking financial relief. Business owners who create the jobs required to revive the economy have told me they fear out-of-control pension costs will lead to higher taxes. Businesses cannot be expected, nor can they afford, to shoulder a higher tax burden and survive in our state.
Public employee retirement obligations have grown so large that they are now on pace to crush state and local governments and take away funding from essential priorities such as public safety, transportation and education.
In fact, a Stanford study recently pegged the unfunded obligations of all public employee retirement systems at nearly $500 billion dollars. To put that into perspective, that is more than five times the amount of our state's entire general fund budget!
Recognizing the need to act, Gov. Jerry Brown released a 12-point plan to address the state's pension problems and my colleagues and I introduced that reform proposal word for word as legislation. The reforms included many ideas that have been talked about for years such as:
• Ending the practice of allowing state workers to purchase service credit for time they did not actually work.
• Prohibiting retroactive pension enhancements.
• Prohibiting the use of car allowances and other fringe benefits from being used in the final wage calculation for retirement benefits.
• Forfeiting pension benefits for employees or elected officials who are convicted of a job-related felony.
We believe that by introducing these and other measures, we can finally have a real debate that will provide solutions for the massive unfunded pension obligations facing our state and help alleviate concerns about tax increases impeding business growth in California.
Instead, the Assembly Committee on Public Employees and Retirement decided to send the pension reform bill package to a conference committee for interim study without so much as a hearing. The real truth is there is little left to study when it comes to pensions. This move is simply another delay with majority party legislators refusing to make tough decisions.
If you believe that the legislature should take action now on pension reform, I encourage you to call the Assembly Committee on Public Employees and Retirement at 916-319-2081 and urge them to hear our pension reform legislation.
Without real reform, the pension crisis will only increase the likelihood that businesses will become even more nervous about investing in California out of fear of higher taxes. We cannot allow this to happen. We must act now to address the chronic issues that plague our state.
California's economic challenges combined with a $9 billion budget deficit and unfunded pension obligations mean government is in distress and seeking financial relief. Business owners who create the jobs required to revive the economy have told me they fear out-of-control pension costs will lead to higher taxes. Businesses cannot be expected, nor can they afford, to shoulder a higher tax burden and survive in our state.
Public employee retirement obligations have grown so large that they are now on pace to crush state and local governments and take away funding from essential priorities such as public safety, transportation and education.
In fact, a Stanford study recently pegged the unfunded obligations of all public employee retirement systems at nearly $500 billion dollars. To put that into perspective, that is more than five times the amount of our state's entire general fund budget!
Recognizing the need to act, Gov. Jerry Brown released a 12-point plan to address the state's pension problems and my colleagues and I introduced that reform proposal word for word as legislation. The reforms included many ideas that have been talked about for years such as:
• Ending the practice of allowing state workers to purchase service credit for time they did not actually work.
• Prohibiting retroactive pension enhancements.
• Prohibiting the use of car allowances and other fringe benefits from being used in the final wage calculation for retirement benefits.
• Forfeiting pension benefits for employees or elected officials who are convicted of a job-related felony.
We believe that by introducing these and other measures, we can finally have a real debate that will provide solutions for the massive unfunded pension obligations facing our state and help alleviate concerns about tax increases impeding business growth in California.
Instead, the Assembly Committee on Public Employees and Retirement decided to send the pension reform bill package to a conference committee for interim study without so much as a hearing. The real truth is there is little left to study when it comes to pensions. This move is simply another delay with majority party legislators refusing to make tough decisions.
If you believe that the legislature should take action now on pension reform, I encourage you to call the Assembly Committee on Public Employees and Retirement at 916-319-2081 and urge them to hear our pension reform legislation.
Without real reform, the pension crisis will only increase the likelihood that businesses will become even more nervous about investing in California out of fear of higher taxes. We cannot allow this to happen. We must act now to address the chronic issues that plague our state.