The Elephant in the Room: Public Employee Pensions

I know, I rail about this quite a bit. But until more politicians start taking on the public employee unions – teachers and all – the situation will only deteriorate. And the only way to get the politicians to stand up to them is to make the taxpaying voters aware of the situation. We’re in a world of financial hurt here, and unless something’s done it’s only going to get worse. Especially in states like New York and California. Like I’ve said before, how is this fair? How is it fair that public employees get benefits those of us in the private sector only dream about? And those of us in the private sector are paying for their benefits. (Public employee tax dollars are really a wash, since they’re paid by the private sector.)

LA Times: On Thursday, pension consultant Girard Miller told California’s Little Hoover Commission that state and local governments have $325 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, which he said amounts to $22,000 for every working adult in the Golden State.

“In California we had the Internet bubble, we had the housing bubble, and I see in the very near future the public pension bubble,” Gov. Schwarzenegger said this week. Confronting the pension crisis, he said, should be the state’s No. 1 policy priority.

If the problem is not addressed, the burden for funding government employee pensions would fall to the state’s taxpayers. Many elected officials are advocating a reduction in benefits mostly for new hires to stave off tax hikes — setting up a collision course with the state’s powerful public employee unions.

“When you have men and women standing side by side in extremely stressful, hazardous, grueling situations over the course of a career, it’s hard to look one or the other in the eye and say your future security matters less,” said Carroll Wills, a spokesman for California Professional Firefighters, which represents 30,000 state public safety workers.

Wills said state employees are taking the fall for the Wall Street financial crisis, which bludgeoned the stock portfolios that help fund pensions.

Um, excuse me for mentioning this, but we private sector workers also took a big hit in our 401k’s with the financial crisis. I don’t hear anyone standing up for us. But the unions will continue to push for the rest of us to fund their unsustainable benefits.

Sorry folks, but how about we all get a little skin in the game. That includes public employees. Like Mr. LC said not too long ago:

“What ever happened to equal pay for equal work? Why should the private sector support the public sector?”

Good question.

Via memeorandum