At last, a municipality in California is taking the lead in pension reform.
Facing a $100 million shortfall over the next ten years, the Long Beach City Council negotiated higher contributions from current public safety workers as well as limiting the entitlement that future employees would receive.
State Assemblyman Warren Furutani (D-Gardena) called the reforms "forward-thinking" insisting that future pension reform statewide must be "surgical" not "sweeping."
Political opposition is a menacing threat in Sacramento and across the country, where public workers have wrapped themselves into a cozy, one-sided relationship with legislators and governors. Americans across the country, including Long Beach and sleepy El Segundo, have had enough. Despite their respect for public safety officers, city and state voters are demanding that public workers contribute more toward their retirement and medical care, no longer legally fleecing the residents whom they have sworn to serve and protect.
Two major pensions abuses have been targeted by Assemblyman Furutani:
"Pension spiking" — public employees get large raises or and inflate their salary right before retiring, which guarantees them an even larger pension when they stop working. This practice disrupts the generic formulas in place to compensate public employees once they retire, according them more money than the systemic metrics had in place.
"Pension Double Dipping" — a state employee receives his pension from a previous position while fulfilling current responsibilities. Councilman Bernard Parks is one double dipper, as he is currently receiving his police department pension while also serving as City Councilmember, another six figure salary position which will generate for him a generous pension upon retirement.
If a large municipality like Long Beach can take strides to ease their entitlement burden with city-wide strikes from public workers, then perhaps Los Angeles, with the help of Councilman Furutani, could take the sting out of public compensation hindering Los Angeles and set a broader example of the rest of California and the country.