{"id":15750,"date":"2012-09-05T19:36:22","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T23:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=15750"},"modified":"2012-09-05T19:36:22","modified_gmt":"2012-09-05T23:36:22","slug":"update-on-california%e2%80%99s-pension-reform-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/15750\/update-on-california%e2%80%99s-pension-reform-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on California\u2019s Pension Reform Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/2012\/cjc0905sg.html\" target=\"_blank\">Steven Greenhut<\/a> in City Journal has an update on California\u2019s nascent pension reform deal:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Despite its relatively modest contents, AB 340 has been bitterly denounced by public-employee unions. \u201cThe pension proposals outlined today represent a retreat from collective bargaining and basic principles of retirement security,\u201d said one firefighter-union official in a press statement. Union officials obviously don\u2019t want the state capping pensions. The unions would prefer to work out \u201creforms\u201d at the collective-bargaining table, where they exert the most power and often control both sides of the negotiation (union officials and city staffers sometimes belong to the same union, and many city council members get elected with union support).<\/p>\n<p>But just because the plan is angrily opposed by unions doesn\u2019t make it a good one. \u201cLet\u2019s be clear,\u201d said assembly Republican leader Connie Conway, \u201cthe Democrat proposal is no substitute for serious reforms to get our public employee pension crisis under control. This is no time for the liberal majority to pat themselves on the back and say the job is done.\u201d Indeed, AB 340, designed mainly as a fig leaf for a big tax increase, won\u2019t fix the state\u2019s massive pension problem. It\u2019s a minor reform at best\u2014and sadly par for the course with this governor and legislature.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>All true.\u00a0 But I submit there is still a silver lining.<\/p>\n<p>Last week I posted <a href=\"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/15690\/silver-lining-in-california%E2%80%99s-latest-pension-reform-deal\/ \" target=\"_blank\">some thoughts<\/a> on this issue.\u00a0 In those remarks I said that any real reform is welcome, if only to set the table for larger, more substantive changes in the future.<\/p>\n<p>While more can and should be done to address California\u2019s $500 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, this kind of \u201cfig leaf\u201d is welcome, if inadequate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steven Greenhut in City Journal has an update on California\u2019s nascent pension reform deal: Despite its relatively modest contents, AB 340 has been bitterly denounced by public-employee unions. \u201cThe pension proposals outlined today represent a retreat from collective bargaining and basic principles of retirement security,\u201d said one firefighter-union official in a press statement. Union officials [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[299,2035,1588,1447],"class_list":["post-15750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-california","tag-jerry-brown","tag-pension","tag-reform"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15750"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15756,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15750\/revisions\/15756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}