Governor Brown proposes pension reform

Teachers may be forced to retire no younger than age 67 if Governor Jerry Brown gets his way with pension changes. In October, Brown proposed 12 major pension reforms as means of solving the financial crisis California is facing. If they were implemented, the new plan would save the state billions of dollars over the coming years.

“It’s time to fix our pension systems so that they are fair and sustainable over a long time horizon,” said Brown. “My plan raises the retirement age and bans abusive practices like ‘spiking’ and ‘air time’ while mandating that public employees pay an equal share of pension costs.”

The proposal includes changing the minimum retirement age for state employees from 55 to 67, and increasing employee contribution to pension benefits from 5%-9% to 10%. The proposal also changes the one-year final compensation to three-year final compensation, limits post-retirement employment, and prohibits retroactive pension increases and pension holidays for employers and employees.

Despite Brown’s assurances that the plan “protects taxpayers while being fair to the employees,” the reforms have been met with great disapproval from teachers’ unions in California as well as individual teachers.

CVUSD Superintendent Jim Negri acknowledged that “the pension system needs to be reformed because it is broken.” However, he believes that Brown’s proposal is flawed and will be a disincentive for well-educated people to become teachers.

History teacher and Castro Valley Teachers’ Association President John Green also feels that the Governor’s reforms would discourage young graduates to become teachers.

“Who wants to become a teacher when you have to work until you are 67 and for low pay? And since the retirement age would be changed, that would be 12 years of job opportunities to become teachers not opening,” said Green.

Over the past few years, billions of dollars have been cut from public schools, and limiting teacher pensions would be another blow to education.

“Teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions,” stated Green. “Public education should give students equal opportunity. Now people have to pay for private tutors, which puts students from low income families at a disadvantage.”

Junior student Laura Miller also worries about the effect Brown’s pension plan would have on education.
“There have already been so many heavy cuts to the public school system, and teachers should not have to suffer further,” said Miller.

On Dec. 1 a legislative committee reviewed Brown’s plan. The governor is hoping that lawmakers will place a measure on the November 2012 ballot that would provide new rules for the more than 3,000 public pension plans in California. In order to accomplish that, a two-thirds vote of the Legislature is necessary. Several California teachers’ unions are working to ensure that our state keeps the retirement system it has currently.

The Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) “view[s] the Governor’s proposal as a bold starting point for legislative deliberations—a proposal that would implement substantial changes to retirement benefits, particularly for future public workers.”

The LAO feels that some kind change is necessary because “the current structure of these benefits—wherein state and local governments provide compensation in forms that are very different from that offered in the private sector—impairs the public’s ability to assess whether government is carefully managing its funds and can affect the public’s trust in government itself.”