Can California Voters Recoup Excessive Pay, Benefits and Pensions from Current Public Employees?

◼ California is broke. Every year we spend about $20 billion more than we take in, despite a constitutional requirement of balanced budgets. - John Eastman/Fox & Hounds

Our elected officials have tried every trick in the books to make it appear that they have not been acting unconstitutionally. They’ve “borrowed” from local governments and schools with phony promises to repay next year, much as Wimpy used to promise Popeye that he’d pay on Tuesday for a hamburger today. Total outstanding tab on these gimmicks – about $40 billion and counting. They’ve bond-funded current operating expenses as well as everything else they can think of, from school buildings to stem cell research. Current tab – more than $77 billion, the second-highest per capita general obligation debt load in the country.

But by far the largest part of our bankruptcy-inducing debt is unfunded pension and health care benefits promised to public employees, extracted over the years from public employee union bosses who practically own the legislature in Sacramento. Even in the best scenario of investment returns that match the average rate over the past century, the unfunded liability is a quarter of a trillion dollars.