Public employee pensions are killing services in California

Public employee pensions are killing services in California - Watchdog.org:

A new study published by the Manhattan Institute shows that many California cities are suffering from “crowding out,” a cut in services in order to cope with the ever-increasing benefits granted to government employee retirees, which “crowd out” other spending.

Cities and counties especially feel the burden of retired government employees during recessions when tax revenues are down. For example, the city of Fontana saw a 49.5 percent decrease in its tax revenues since 2009 while pensions costs increased nearly 75 percent. 

But even when tax revenues increase substantially–San Francisco city and county saw an increase of 72 percent in revenues–pension benefits usually increase at supersonic speeds–537 percent for San Francisco.

...However such reforms will be very hard to come by. 

Just in the Canadian province of Quebec, which offers similarly generous retirement benefits, public employees staunchly opposed (but were ultimately unsuccessful into stopping) paying 50 percent of their retirement benefits. The even stormed Montreal’s City Hall in protest.

But the more California (and Quebec) wait to come up with significant structural changes, the more painful the correction will be.