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June 24, 2009
Old Bills Coming Due in California
Posted by Dave Blount at June 24, 2009 8:23 AM
There's always a price to be paid for moonbattery. In California, a bill is coming due after ten years:
A milestone on California's meandering journey toward fiscal insolvency occurred exactly a decade ago when the Legislature enacted a massive increase in state employee pensions on the expedient assumption that it would cost taxpayers nothing.
Although the new pensions would generate almost countless billions of dollars in extra income for retirees in the years ahead, the CalPERS board, dominated by union representatives, told legislators that taxpayers wouldn't have to bear the load because investment income, which was flowing into the pension trust fund from high-tech stocks, would continue indefinitely.
Surprise: that didn't happen.
CalPERS' investments have dropped by nearly a third and the state is paying more than $3 billion a year into the pension fund, nearly 10 times what it paid a decade ago when CalPERS made its bogus assertion to lawmakers.
Some retired state workers are collecting over 100% of their salaries, while the state searches under the sofa cushions for change.
Maybe handing over total control of the economy to unions and bureaucrats isn't such a great idea after all.
On a tip from Oiao.
