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Why do you think they do that? I retired in Oregon with a good pension and will live here until I die.
Depends upon the person and their situation. DH got an offer on his dream retirement job in TX. We were ready to leave CA, beyond ready, and never looked back.
The problems are overblown. CA can solve any pension problems -- by raising taxes. They recently raised car and gas taxes. Many cities also raised sales taxes. My city, in addition to raising sales tax, also raise water, electricity, trash collection fees. Now they are going after Prop 13. There is also talk of taxing the air people breathe in CA.
The problems are overblown. CA can solve any pension problems -- by raising taxes. They recently raised car and gas taxes. Many cities also raised sales taxes. My city, in addition to raising sales tax, also raise water, electricity, trash collection fees. Now they are going after Prop 13. There is also talk of taxing the air people breathe in CA.
Bingo! Cali has some pension problems? Just raise taxes.
The problems are overblown. CA can solve any pension problems -- by raising taxes. They recently raised car and gas taxes. Many cities also raised sales taxes. My city, in addition to raising sales tax, also raise water, electricity, trash collection fees. Now they are going after Prop 13. There is also talk of taxing the air people breathe in CA.
As far as a pension crisis CA is in the middle of the pack in regards to pension funding.
On the other hand we also have ridiculous state taxes already and a declining domestic population because of this (though there's still plenty of illegals coming in to keep state growth up slightly).
Part of the reason our cost of living is so absurd is taxes and often hidden ones. How much do building permits cost in SF compared to other cities? When you're paying several hundred k in building permits for some homes it's no wonder housing costs are outrageous. A relative of mine had to pay 2k for a permit to remove a tree in his own yard that had roots disrupting his foundation.
We now have a gas tax that rises every year "with inflation" to fund these stupid pensions. Our roads in CA are far worse than those in other states I lived like NC despite this
The problems are overblown. CA can solve any pension problems -- by raising taxes. They recently raised car and gas taxes. Many cities also raised sales taxes. My city, in addition to raising sales tax, also raise water, electricity, trash collection fees. Now they are going after Prop 13. There is also talk of taxing the air people breathe in CA.
Hate to break it to you, but CALPERS pensions, as well as the many other defined pension systems in CA don't rely one bit on taxes. It's employer contributions to the particular pension fund, employees contributions to the same, and the supposed growth of the fund that constitutes any particular pension fund such as CALPERS, CALSTRS, the 37 Act Systems (Most all CA counties) as well as the many special districts who also have their own defined benefit plans.
The crisis may be solvable by the steps I've already mentioned in my previous post, but there will be pain and upheaval involved at some point down the road and probably within the next 10 years.
Its only a disaster for certain cities. Much of the state (including the teachers) and many cities have no pension crisis.
Cities in CA don't have their own "pension systems." They generally are part of CALPERS. So if CALPERS is underfunded significantly (which it is) all cities belonging to CALPERS are in the same boat.
You are a public agency, depending on tax money to operate. Part of the operating expenses is contributing to your public employee pensions. So yeah, taxpayers help pay for those pensions. Despite what some ignorant people (or public union shills) claim, CA taxpayers pay for public employee pensions. These are a few examples:
CalPERS is making ever-increasing demands on Sacramento and other local governments for more money to prop up its trust fund, which has scarcely two-thirds of the money it needs to meet current pension promises.
The City of Sacramento’s two CalPERS accounts are similarly short, with the police/fire system just 66.5 percent funded and the one for other employees only slightly better at 70.8 percent, its actuarial statements say.
Renewal of Sacramento’s expiring half-cent tax would cover perhaps half of the projected increase in annual pension costs, but crowd out other services the tax now finances. Were voters to double it to a full cent, virtually every new dollar it generated would be needed to pay increased CalPERS demands.
Asking voters to raise taxes for popular services without mentioning rising pension costs has become a common tactic in California’s cities.
Taxes on the above-limits portions of the pensions cost cities and counties extra, consuming taxpayer money that could go toward street maintenance, parks, police or firefighters.
Why do you think they do that? I retired in Oregon with a good pension and will live here until I die.
Because the system that yields generous pensions requires high taxation. Why continue to live in California or Illinois when you can move to Arizona or Florida? You can have your cake and eat it too.
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