The ticking time bomb that is our public employee pension system

By John Eastman

The Sacramento Bee had a major expose Sunday on the ticking time bomb that is our public employee pension system. The Gray Davis-initiated retroactive change in the pension formula has produced a financial tsunami that is likely to bankrupt almost every local government across the state in the years ahead.

There are no winners on this issue. Certainly the taxpayers and local governments lose. Current public employees lose too, because jobs will literally be cut today to pay for future pension obligations. Even the retirees that supposedly benefit lose too, because one way or another, these benefits will never be paid...there is literally no money to pay them.

So retirees counting on these benefits won't see them either. Worst part? As I have been pointing out on the campaign trail for the past several months, the retroactive pension grab violated the California Constitution. But that is also the good news--because the retroactive pension grab was illegal, the contracts are void ab initio--that means, we don't have to pay out on them.

All we need is an Attorney General willing to take the heat and cancel out this illegal raid on the public treasury.