Public union leaders have consistently denied there is a problem with the current government employee pension system. They defend the high benefit levels and consistently argue that pension funds are perfectly solvent. Those claims are delusional at best; ignorant at worst. A debate in Orange County on Tuesday pointed out the inherent flaws in those notions.
Even the leaders of local public employees unions in Orange County are part of the pension crisis deniers club. Capturing the denial perfectly, the Orange County Forum, the Pacific Research Institute and the Lincoln Club Tuesday hosted a debate on the pensions In Newport Beach between the Orange County Employee Association General Manager Nick Beradino and OC Register Columnist and editor in chief of the Cal Watchdog, Steve Greenhut.
To start the debate questions, the moderator, Rick Reiff, asked “Is there a pension problem?” Mr. Beradino held the union line, when he answered “kind of” but it is more of a “misunderstanding” about the facts. Mr. Beradino holds to the union orthodoxy that government workers are modestly compensated and given reasonable benefits. He gave an average level of benefits pay that is misleading, a common tract union bossed. “The average pension” for government workers in the state “is $29,000” and “this idea that they [public employees” retire as millionaires is not true,” he told the crowd.
As the Register Watchdog detailed last month, the average pension benefits for state workers are below $30,000 only when taking into account workers who retired well before pension benefits skyrockets. As Register reporter Teri Sforza put it:
“While the average pension in CalPERS is less than $30,000, that figure includes all retirees from all prior years — including those sane years before 1999. (It wasn’t until the 2000s that elected officials lost their minds and boosted public pension benefits to the moon and stars.) For state workers retiring in 2008-09 with more than 30 years of service, the average pension was more than $66,000. In a five-year comparison of public pension distributions from 2006 to 2010, the number of retirees increased by 17 percent, while the number receiving pensions of $100,000 and above increased by more than 230 percent.”
Taking the new average of $66,000 a year in guaranteed retirement benefits, public servants have today become millionaires with retirement benefits that Dwarf private sector equivalents.
“We are depleting our public services by spending our budgets on this gilded class of pensioners,” Mr. Greenhut told the audience. Government is “becoming pension providers that provide public services on the side”. He hit the nail on the head.
Unfunded pension liability is perhaps the most pernicious issue facing local and state governments. Unions ought to acknowledge the dire straits facing governments and stop obstructing real pension reform measures.
Union bosses still denying pension crisis is a post from: Orange Punch