We’re now
25 billion dollars in the red in California. The governor along with his Democrat controlled legislature will never do the right thing. They’re the same folks who brought you this mess. When Governor Brown was previously the governor he signed
the Dills Act in 1978 that gave civil servants the right to collective bargaining. He did this on his very first day in office as governor. This revolutionary enactment was the beginning of the end or our state. Now, with the power of government labor unions unchecked, state employees, now the largest unionized force of any state, have controlled the legislative agenda for the past 30 years. Their sweetheart pension plans are a marvel to their political strength and are unmatched anywhere in the private sector. This is why although state workers’ pensions are the single largest problem in this budget crisis, Brown has not even mentioned it in his new “reform” proposals. He has however mentioned tax increases, or as he calls them tax “extensions”. A two-thirds margin of Californians overwhelmingly
opposes tax increases as a solution.
Here’s the problem, notwithstanding a current state budget deficit of 25 billion dollars, the state has
700 billion dollars in unfunded pension liabilities. This is ticking time bomb. No matter how much we cut and balance today’s budget, we will never catch up and meet the needs of the ridiculously high unfunded pensions. This is the problem.
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