Op-Eds

Wall Street caused pension crisis, not cops and firefighters

BY WAYNE HARRIS
Special to The Bee

If there’s one thing the debate over public employees’ pensions has taught us, it’s that California needs to invest more in mathematics instruction. When The Sacramento Bee editorial board (“The pension nightmare for California’s cities is getting scarier,” Feb. 13) and city officials wag their fingers of blame at firefighters, teachers, police officers and state pension systems that have yielded 7 percent returns in the long run, it’s clear there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the numbers.

Let’s not be as shortsighted on pensions as on drought

BY YVONNE WALKER
Special to The Bee

It wasn’t long ago that some armchair experts, basing their opinions on data from the previous 10 years, were predicting California’s drought would extend indefinitely.

The short-term numbers were difficult to dispute and there were severe shortfalls in reservoirs. The longer view, however, showed that there had been similar droughts that came and went. Blessedly, so did this one after last winter, one of the wettest seasons on record. 

Opinion: CalPERS pensions are just fine, thank you very much

By DAVE LOW

The attack on pension changes passed by a bipartisan vote of the Legislature and signed by  Governor Brown (Dan Borenstein, Feb. 2)  was exactly like each of the few Lotto tickets I’ve ever purchased: Wrong across the board.

Dave Low: Reed's state pension reform measure would be financial disaster

By Dave Low
 

Backers of an effort to slash the retirement of public servants got a stiff dose of reality this month when leaders of the state's top public investment funds raised red flags about the plan that could be headed for the 2016 ballot.

They said the latest proposal on public pensions from former San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio and former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed would undermine decades of labor law and collective bargaining precedent and threaten retirement security for tens of thousands of working families.

Why Pension Measure is in Trouble

by Steven Maviglio
August 17, 2015

To no one’s surprise, the backers of the measure to slash retirement security for millions of California’s public servants are squealing about the title and summary issued by Attorney General Kamala Harris last week.

Reed described it as “inaccurate and misleading.” Which is nearly identical what he said two years ago when Harris issued a similar review of the initiative. (Reed challenged the Attorney General in Court during the last go-round. He lost.)

LAO Deals a Blow to Pension Measure’s Chances

By Steven Maviglio, Fox & Hounds
July 29, 2015

The Legislative Analysts Office may have dealt the death knell to an effort to slash the retirement security of California’s teachers, firefighters, peace officers, bus drivers and other public employees this week with a candid assessment of its impact.

Latest measure from pension attackers threatens middle class

by Dave Low

In their never-ending effort to force-feed warmed-over political ideas to a skeptical public, the pension attackers are back, using new poll-tested language and focus-grouped talking points to undermine retirement security for millions of working families.

New Pension Reform Efforts Are Not a Solution

By Jack Ehnes

By creating the illusion of a catastrophic pension crisis, pension critics would have you believe that the only way to create a sound and sustainable retirement savings program is to move away from a defined benefit pension, preferably replaced with a defined contribution or perhaps none all. Many recent studies, media articles and now a new ballot initiative are based on the same flawed logic.