CFFR vice president Marcia Fritz appeared on Southern California Public Radio station KPPC on Tuesday. She was discussing Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposal to overhaul California’s public employee pension funds which he says are “financially unsustainable.”

The governor’s plan would create a two-tiered system that would give lower benefits to newly-hired public employees, including state workers, firefighters, police officers, and teachers. The show’s host  is Larry Mantle. Other guests are David Crane, special advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger for jobs and economic growth, and Scott Adams, pension and investment analyst with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Listen to the show or download it here (mp3). Get more information on the show, read listener comments or make comments online yourself here.

CFFR vice president Marcia Fritz will be a guest tomorrow on the Eric Hogue show on KTKZ-AM 1380 in Sacramento from noon to 12:30. Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, will be filling in for Eric as host. You can listen to the show live online.

Yesterday the Orange County Taxpayers Association sent a letter to the mayor of Costa Mesa opposing that city’s proposal to increase firefighters’ pensions:

August 11, 2009

The Honorable Allan R. Mansoor, Mayor
City of Costa Mesa
P. O. Box 1200
77 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa CA 92628-1200

Dear Mayor Mansoor,

The Orange County Taxpayers Association was surprised that your City Council contemplates increasing your firefighters’ pensions (retroactively!) to the “3% at 50″ level.

You must be aware that such rich benefits threaten the solvency of our state, counties, and cities.

- CalPERS’ own chief actuary, Ron Seeling, warns that “pension costs are unsustainable.”

- The California Public Employees’ Retirement Journal, the public employees’ own news source, says pensions are “richer than they need to be,” and “the mixture of personal greed, wishful thinking, and faulty numbers which surrounded the adoption of [3% at 50] has now clearly come back to bite us.” But the Journal also boasts that “elected officials are jellyfish in a suit” when confronting public employee unions [because they depend on police and firefighters' endorsements to win election or re-election].

- Business Week calls public employee pensions “a sinkhole for taxpayers.”

- Dr. Steven Frates of The Rose Institute of State and Local Government says, “We are making millionaires of our public employees”; that is, a private individual would need several million dollars in the bank to retire in such luxury.

- Pensions & Investments magazine asks, “Why should public employees have better benefits than the working stiffs paying the taxes?” Private-sector workers are not retiring earlier and richer, they are working longer and poorer.

Other jurisdictions are trying to stem pension-related hemorrhaging of their budgets. The Orange County Board of Supervisors recently negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding with the County’s largest union that would combine the minimum legal defined benefit (1.62% at 65) with a defined contribution in an effort to reduce pension costs. Many pension systems now are considering more reasonable “Tier 3″ pension benefits in upcoming bargaining.

Please reconsider your reckless proposal to raise pension benefits.
 
Reed L. Royalty, President
Orange County Taxpayers Association

Reed Royalty is a member of CFFR’s Advisory Board.

The third and final installment of Marcia Fritz’s point/counterpoint “Dust Up” in the Los Angeles Times appeared yesterday: 401(k) plans for everyone? Over the weekend, several folks reported problems posting comments on the site, but it appears that the technical issues have been resolved and you are now able to express your opinion on any of the three parts in the series.

Today is the second day of Marcia Fritz’s point/counterpoint “Dust Up” in the Los Angeles Times with AFSCME’s Scott Adams regarding public employee pensions in California: CalPERS: a looming disaster?  After reading it, please consider posting a comment.

Don’t miss today’s Los Angeles Times online point/counterpoint feature called “Dust-Up” in which CFFR’s vice president Marcia Fritz takes on AFSCME’s Scott Adams: Why did Schwarzenegger bail on pension reform?