Re:Can Facebook Save California?
by nowarninglabel on Saturday December 25, 2010 @11:43AM
(#2039078)
The shortfall itself is due mostly to decreased revenues as opposed to increased expenditures. That said, pension expenditures are a fairly good size chunk. There is a decent overview here http://reason.org/news/show/fix-california-pension-crisis but if you want to drill down through the data itself, it is available here: http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/Enacted/agencies.html
Yes, pensions are a major part of the shortfall but I specifically said outrageous pensions payouts. It remains to be shown that the shortfall comes from outrageous pensions. I've noticed that often times people mention the unfunded pension liabilities in California and then point to a few extreme examples. Are the extreme examples causing the problem?
There are structural problems with California governing system that give more plausible reasons for its present problems. To go from Facebook setting up a data center in order to save a few million dollars to an extreme pension abuse example is very weak.
Don't forget the unfunded part of the current pensions, this has been a problem building over multiple years and probably won't have and easy solution.
Re:Can Facebook Save California?
by ryanwaggoner on Saturday December 25, 2010 @11:41AM
(#2039073)
California is facing potentially catastrophic future problems from unfunded pension liabilities [1]. And ridiculous numbers of blue-collar state positions get six figure salaries and the generous pensions that go with them. It would be nice if we could do that, but the math just doesn't work, which is why California's problems are only going to get worse unless drastic action is taken. And it won't be until things get really bad.
1. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/06/opinion/la-oe-crane6...
We presently live in a system where states often times compete with each other to offer incentives to attract factories or other operations that employ a lot of people. These tax incentives are paid for by the people of the state, that is, by the workers. It's a perverse system. Maybe companies should be willing to pay their share of national defense, roads, etc.