It seems to me that our state government has messed up priorities. Being in the pocket of labor unions and not the people is the wrong way to create a stable budget. I understand the need for unions and the protection they provide. Limits and fairness must also apply.
So here lies the problem:
The state workers union has a negotiated contract that allows a worker to receive 3% of their final salary multiplied by the number of years they have worked for the state. Example- Joe Worker has 20 years in at the DMV and retires at 50. He will receive 60% of his salary for THE REST OF HIS LIFE. Some workers make 100% or more. And a little trick they do to increase that amount is by having their friend, in a position above them, bump their salary or transfer them to a higher paying category for the last two years, insuring a high pension salary. Because the amount is not based on the average salary for the years they worked but on the last few.
I am all for a fair contract and retirement benefits. But some sort of vestment schedule needs to be applied. Maybe a sliding scale of benefits over the length of retirement. The state can’t handle the amount of money it is paying out to pensions, especially seeing that the baby boomer generation is starting to hit and people are living longer(which is a good thing). The fear of losing the union vote and kickbacks (sorry, campaign contributions) come election time makes every legislator roll over. Plus, add in the fact that in some cases the workers are exempt from layoffs during a budget crisis and it takes a court order and years of costly hearings to fire a bad or criminal teacher, makes it very difficult to balance a budget. Not to mention that it leaves very little for needed programs and day-to-day operations.
What is comes down to is that the legislature is looking out for themselves not the people. When will it change? It seems true…money and power will lure and corrupt those who start with good intentions.
