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SF leads the way
Steven Greenhut: It’s ironic that the city of San Francisco — a great city that is nevertheless known for its wacky, left-wing politics — has been in better shape than far more conservative areas in terms of pensions. That’s because the city charter long required a public vote for pension increases — something only recently followed by OC and San Diego (closing the door after the horse left the barn). Now public defender Jeff Adachi is pushing ahead a ballot initiative to rein in pension costs. Adachi appears to be one of those genuine progressives — someone who recognizes that pension costs for wealthy public employees is consuming budget dollars that should be earmarked for the needy. Good for him. If pension reform passes in SF, then it should be able to pass everywhere. Then again, as someone who covered politics in the state’s most Republican big county, I can guarantee that Republicans are so beholden to law enforcement and firefighter unions that reform is tough going in those places also.
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February 04, 2012
Alas, as I’ve been predicting here on CalWatchDog.com, the economy keeps getting worse. That’s what’s going to be driving state and local budgets. Unions will be helpless as the high tax revenues they have come to rely on decline even further, and tax increases backfire by hurting the economy more.
Here’s that CalWatchDog.com column I wrote on the effects of a crashing economy. Since then, all sorts of signs of an economic “double dip” Depression have been in the news, as you may have noticed. You read it here first:
http://www.calwatchdog.com/2010/06/21/new-state-recovery-still-iffy/