Change : San Jose passes pension reform (San Diego, San Francisco: school, college, tax)

[yeahthatguy]

All precincts counted: San Jose passes pension reform - San Jose Mercury News
San Jose voters Tuesday handed Mayor Chuck Reed a crucial victory with his nationally watched pension reform measure passing by a decisive margin.

Congratulations to San Jose on this pivotal measure. More steps like this on a broader scale and CA will be on the road to mending its financial wounds.


P.S - Not sure of the legal hurdles down the road. Something tells me there are many though..

[hoffdano]

One small step.....

And a nice one too. Hopefully many more to come.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

San Diego too.

[darkeconomist]

Fine for us to say, but we don't have to suffer massive increases in costs while receiving massively smaller benefits and a five year freeze on pay increases.

Seems to be the flavor of the year. Previously, the population didn't have any qualms about defending the (massive) bonuses of employees at bailed out investment banks.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by darkeconomist

Fine for us to say, but we don't have to suffer massive increases in costs while receiving massively smaller benefits and a five year freeze on pay increases.

Seems to be the flavor of the year. Previously, the population didn't have any qualms about defending the (massive) bonuses of employees at bailed out investment banks.

I don't know anyone who supported bank bailouts.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

I don't know anyone who supported bank bailouts.

Bank executives sure did. To bad none of that "trickled down" to anyone else.

[hsw]

Good to see voters waking up in places like SJ/SD/WI

NYC is US' welfare capital w/lots of >$1MM/yr, <40yo moron bankers (and ~10MM really lame morons who live off welfare and/or off make-work gvt jobs for gens) who can't manage risk and live off taxpayer bailouts when '08 tail risks inevitably occur

But lots of SV VCs who have various green/clean/social media nonsense start-ups aren't far behind as welfare scum....suspect these Menlo VCs have as small tax bills (vs their enormous net worth) as the "evil" hedgies/PE guys from Manhattan or SF, or as similarly crafty AAPL/GOOG/FB, etc....lots of sanctimonious pigs feeding at the trough, donating to community organizers in DC to keep the bespoke tax loopholes alive

[EclecticEars]

If this were in San Francisco, I would count on this being struck down by some mamby-pamby liberal judge who belives in "equitability."

Since this is San Jose we're talking about, this might actually stand. For the city's sake, I sure hope it does.

[MaikeerinWA]

I truly appreciate what police and firefighters do, but a whopping 90% of highest pay in retirement is ridiculously generous.

A Pension Battle Erupts in San Jose With Cops and Firefights at Center - WSJ.com

Good for the San Jose voters.

[sonarrat]

I don't know if this is still the case, but when I was in college I visited a fire station for a school assignment. There were people lining up to volunteer, and the hope was that maybe one of them might eventually get a shot at a position as an actual firefighter. The reason is that the benefits are so generous, you wind up with a huge surplus of willing people who think the risks of the profession are outweighed by the security and the perks. So they not only have high pay and benefits, but they have a ready pool of volunteers who will do the thankless, tedious everyday work for free..