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California’s pension crisis is a political machine’s retirement plan

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A retired California government employee collected nearly half a million dollars in pension payments last year. The system paying him is $153 billion short of the assets needed to cover its promises.

He gets his check. The politicians who helped build this mess move on. You get stuck making the numbers work.

The California Post found more than 63,000 CalPERS retirees receiving six-figure annual pensions.

But the bigger scandal is how California’s political leadership made these promises and left taxpayers responsible for keeping them.

Public employee unions help elect the officials they negotiate with. They recruit candidates, supply volunteers, fund advertising and turn out voters. Then those officials approve pay and benefits financed by taxpayers.

How hard do you suppose they bargain with the organizations that put them in office?

Try that in the private sector. The United Auto Workers do not help elect Ford’s CEO. The Teamsters do not finance the selection of UPS executives.

A business must negotiate a contract it can afford while remaining competitive. Get that calculation wrong, and the company can fail.

Government can raise taxes, cut services or push costs into the future. Pension promises make that option convenient. Employees receive enhanced benefits, union leaders announce a victory, and politicians enjoy the applause.

The bill arrives years later, when somebody else holds office.

Gov. Gray Davis showed how it works in 1999, signing Senate Bill 400 to expand retirement benefits for state employees. Local governments followed with their own enhancements. Benefits were sweetened retroactively, increasing........

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