The truth about our pensions

Attackers ignore facts, promote fiscal myths

Updated Jan. 27, 2010
Three ballot initiatives are being circulated in a misleading effort to reduce the retirement security of all state employees hired in the future. In addition, Gov. Schwarzenegger is supporting a separate plan to scale back benefits, for future state employees, to 1999 levels.

“The initiatives are another attack on state workers. Once again state workers are being scapegoated by using distorted numbers about the increase in pension costs,” said Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker. “Pension funding is a smaller percentage of the state payroll now than it was in 1982. In fact, the average pension of our members is only $27,000.”

Those who attack our retirement security refuse to acknowledge that hundreds of thousands of public employees – including most Local 1000 members – traded higher potential earnings in the private sector for a modest amount of retirement security.

All of these attacks on retirement security rely on misinformation and myths about employee compensation. Initiative supporters trot out statistics on a small number of local government executives who arranged cushy retirement deals for themselves and their cronies while ignoring the fact that the overwhelming majority of government employee pensions are modest.

Since about half of workers represented by Local 1000 are over age 50, this will likely create recruitment problems in the future, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, and could force the state to pay higher salaries in order to keep these jobs competitive.

The three proposed state initiatives are all designed to use the ballot box to undermine the collective bargaining process in separate jurisdictions throughout California.

“These proposed ballot measure are more than just an attack on our retirement security,” Walker said. “They want to undermine organized labor and working families who want a secure retirement.”