Public employees are breaking Californias back (insurance, credit, home)

[bhcompy]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

one way of feeling better is to bring down everybody around you.
tell me if we pay cops social workers and teachers min wage, what do you think you will get?
so these people put up with our stuff the garbage that we dont wana deal with for 30 years and then you dont wana pay them the pension you promised, is that it?
americans love to spend but hate to pay.

my wife works for a company that assists the dmv in auditing dmv registrations(basically as contractors). essentially, comparing vin numbers and such on the forms submitted in purchases and renewals, allowing plates and tags to be mailed. this job requires no skill you dont learn in high school(or jr high or elementary school). these people doing this job at the dmv make 40-50k per year on top of public pension and excellent benefits packages that cost the state a lot of money. the dmv is behind(floats around, but 30-60 days or so behind) and even has special "premium" programs for certain car dealerships that are supposed to have a 3 day turnaround. they are backed up the same as the regular work. these jobs are realistically worth 50% to 66% of what they are making when compared to the private sector, and thats not including pension or benefit perks that public employees get.

my point is that not every public employee is a cop or a teacher. many of them are regular stiffs being paid a considerable markup over private sector salaries for the same job. add a pension, which is a huge drain on funds, especially as people live longer, and you have a situation where these employees are hurting the state(or whatever institution they're working for) more than they are helping it

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by bhcompy

my point is that not every public employee is a cop or a teacher. many of them are regular stiffs being paid a considerable markup over private sector salaries for the same job. add a pension, which is a huge drain on funds, especially as people live longer, and you have a situation where these employees are hurting the state(or whatever institution they're working for) more than they are helping it

But ask them to pay an extra $2 copay for a prescription and they scream like a stuck pig. My wife works for the county and she gets so frustrated with the overall lack of competence in her office. Most people are in the county coma where they just do the bare minimum to not get fired and retire at 55.

[jimhcom]

In the City of San Diego, they can begin to draw their retirement while they are still working, so they get 2 paychecks.

[JViello]

You all are experiencing what we here in Connecticut have for years. Politicians who spend like drunk sailors and are elected and controlled by the state employee union.

It's horrible.

There is a reason we have the third highest tax burden in the nation. (NJ is 1 and NY 2)

2/3rd of our state budget is state payroll and social services. Insane.

There used to be a saying that civil service work was good to have in bad times and bad to have in good times. Now they are good to have ANYTIME.

You have assistants to assistants who run committees to oversee committees.

The state jobs pay far above the private sector, offer benefits far above the private sector and have unrealistic retirement allowances compared to the private sector (I.E. Work for 20 years and retire with a full pension).

Some of the salaries and outright greed is sickening.

There is a clause here in CT that your pension is based on your highest three years, so these lovely people work 70-80 hours a week for their last three years and walk away with 75-90K pensions. You've got state cops in their last year doing the greedy grab making over 130K and retiring with 80K pensions...and THEN the f*****s move to a "low tax" state and their money is not even spent locally! It's just wrong.

This behavior is far more damaging then a CEO of a private company making a big salary. We can no longer afford to foot these bills.

Time to get into the real world government workers. You are a part of what's killing our country. Stop being greedy fools.

That folks is a glimpse into what socialism is going to do to our country. Wake up!

Good luck CA - cause it aint working here either.

[MIKEETC]

Originally Posted by jimhcom

Recent articles have stated that CALPERS has losses in the neighborhood of 80 billion dollars, and that the tax payers are on the hook for the losses. City, County, and State workers and their collective Unions have been making themselves millionaires at the expense of the rest of us.

...

It is time for change, in my opinion it is time to clean house.

I am not aware of any CalPers participants becoming millionnaires . And by 'cleaning house', what do you propose we do?

I thought this was an interesting article:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/po...2542203.column

[JViello]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

But ask them to pay an extra $2 copay for a prescription and they scream like a stuck pig. My wife works for the county and she gets so frustrated with the overall lack of competence in her office. Most people are in the county coma where they just do the bare minimum to not get fired and retire at 55.

It's the SAME SONG here in CT, probably worse. The state workers were asked to pay a $3 copay on prescriptions and they FLIPPED OUT.

What? What the hell do you think those of us on private healthcare plans pay! Good Lord, we are paying over $600.00 per month just for health insurance with crappy copays and coverage! The state folks - free.

The property tax bill on an average house here is about $9,000 per year, and they are rising fast to keep up. They also tax cars, boats, motorcyles and other private property just like your house.

We have the highest gas tax in the nation, utility tax tax this tax that. Everywhere you turn they are taxing the crap out of us in CT and then, THEN they cry broke and need more money yet will not lay off ONE WORKER.

Disgusting.

[sav858]

The only states with as much or more regulations and taxes are in the Northeast, CA is definitely headed that way or pretty much is there already. I think we now rank 4th in the nation for taxes after this April when all the new taxes come into effect. At least there you have good schools while CA doesn't have much to show for its high taxes

[bhcompy]

Originally Posted by MIKEETC

I am not aware of any CalPers participants becoming millionnaires . And by 'cleaning house', what do you propose we do?

The money taken out of the paycheck for the CalPERS pension should instead go into a 401k, like 95% of businesses that had pensions have done over the years. Switches the burden from the whole(and in this case the taxpayer) onto the person

[sav858]

Does anyone know the difference between CalPERS and CalPARS? I remember when I was an intern as SANDAG (SD Association of Govt's) we used CalPARS, which was different than CalPERS but I never really how they were different.

edit: nevermind, I just realized it was just "PARS" not CalPERS.

But maybe public agencies should use something like PARS instead of CalPERS since its a private company taking care of benefits. People pay into PARS instead of Social Security. Not many agencies use it in CA from what I remember.

http://www.parsinfo.org/default.htm (broken link)

[Dean Trails]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

I hate to also point this out to you but most "public" workers in the state, county and municipal, are most assuredly covered under CalPERS for retirement so their pensions and benefits are also affected.

Here's another truth that may have passed you by. "Public" workers are both citizens of the state and tax payers.

The good news for you is that while stupid may be forever, ignorance can be fixed!

I do like your phrase that "Stupid is Forever" but don't let DeBeers hear about it or you might get sued for trademark infringement!

CalPERS is a huge voting block of folks and have quite a bit of political power! I have several relatives that have benefited from the benefits and they are very happy with their circumstances.

As C3PO said "We are doomed, there is no escape for the Princess this time!"