After the political posturing, the vote for California pension reform was clearly done by Democrats and Republicans. See we can agree on some issues.
The Sacramento Bee/The State Worker, 8/31/12. "California Legislature sends public pension overhaul bill to Jerry Brown."
| California sweeping pension reform will become law |
Lawmakers sent the bill to Gov. Jerry Brown on a 38-1 vote in the Senate and 48-8 vote in the Assembly. Democrats, who control majorities in each chamber, barreled ahead with the vote just ahead of the end-of-session deadline after issuing language for the measure Tuesday evening.
Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, D-Los Angeles, countered that the legislation came from months of discussions and represents a refinement of a 12-point pension plan Brown proposed earlier this year. Republicans backed Brown's plan."It is meaningful, significant historic reform," Pérez said Read Article.
Reference - the Bill. Total Capitol, AB 340, includes digest. Conference committee version.
Reference - current Legislature. Wikipedia/California Legislature. California Senate (40): 25 Democrats, 15 Republicans; California Assembly (80) 52 Democrats, 28 Republicans.
Related articles - The Daily Journal/Associated Press, 9/1/12. Prior Fix Pacifica reprint articles, 8/29/12 (following this legislation coming out of Committee).
Posted by Kathy Meeh
8 comments:
Woohoo! This is a start. Shifts more of the cost of pensions for current emps and future hires to the employee through collective bargaining process and mandates it be 50/50 within 5 years. Closed up some of those lucrative loopholes, too, like spiking.
How does Pacifica compare and how long before we're in step with these changes?
Too little too late. They need to do much more to cut current workers not future hires.
"Savings for the coming fiscal year will reach just $146 million at most,"
A pension tsunami is headed for California and our heads are in the sand.
www.pensiontsunami.com/blog/
What would you get if you were a government employee? Calculate your public pension here:
http://www.calculateyourpublicpension.com/
"Too little too late" Better than zero, Anonymous 10:29 AM?
It takes time to phase in any government program. The article states "a revised estimate by CalPERS released on Friday morning pegged savings from the measure at between $42 billion and $55 billion over 30 years, or $12 billion to $15 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars."
New workers. "Those new workers would also share half the normal cost of their pensions with employers. Current employees also would pick up at least half of that cost within five years through collectively-bargained agreements. After that, employers could impose the 50-50 split."
This is real money, and real policy change in the California employee state, county, city system. Its a humane, easy phase in for existing employees.
The private sector, on the other hand, needs stronger social security pension benefits. The disconnect occurred about 30 years ago.
It's important legislation. We can either move forward with it now in reasonable, measured steps or fuss endlessly for impossible, draconian cuts. Thank God reason prevailed. Serious reform of public employee pensions begins.
Yeah it's a start Kathy. Better than nothing. But they are going to have to do a lot more to save Ca cities from insolvency. Sure this MAY save 12-15 billion, but experts are predicting a 500 billion unfunded pension shortfall. Nobody knows the exact numbers though these are all based on estimates of future markets.
Overall I'm happy about this little step though.
I think the governor and the legislature recognized that Measure 30 was DOA without this bill.
We'll see if can overcome high speed rail, salary increases, and the parks department scandal in the public perception.
Probably true Lionel but let's be optimists. The alternative is too grim.
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