Category Archives: Column

By Steven Greenhut | Orange County Register — We expect all sides in politics to fight hard, given the stakes involved, but our system rests on the broad acceptance of a set of fairly applied rules. We know, for instance, … Continue reading →

By Dan Walters | The Sacramento Bee — Whenever someone suggests that California’s public employee pension systems need reform, civil service unions react dismissively, often with attacks on the credentials or even the morals of critics. … The irony is … Continue reading →

By Daniel Borenstein | Contra Costa Times — In November, Berkeley City Manager Phil Kamlarz traded his $250,000-a-year job for retirement with a starting pension of about $266,000 annually. The deal highlights the city’s generous pension program, which is one … Continue reading →

By Daniel Borenstein | Contra Costa Times — The city of San Jose faces a fiscal death squeeze as it tries to fund ballooning costs of employee retirement benefits. To pay the bill, the city must lay off workers. Whereas … Continue reading →

By Dick Spotswood | Marin Independent Journal — Until now, it’s been easy for many Marin politicians to dodge responsibility for changing California’s broken public employee retirements system. That’s frustrating because most voters understand that the status quo is not … Continue reading →

By Daniel Borenstein | Contra Costa Times — Labor unions try to have it both ways. They fight statewide reform of public employee pension systems by insisting that change must be bargained at the local level. But, as we see … Continue reading →

By George Skelton | Los Angeles Times — In Philadelphia, 224 years ago, some men tucked these words into the nation’s new Constitution: “No state shall … pass any … law impairing the obligation of contracts…” Those words, squeezed into … Continue reading →