CalPERS not only threatened Vallejo with perpetual litigation if the city tried to reduce pensions, ”it actually wound up raising what Vallejo had to contribute to pensions, ” says the Debord Report.
That sounds punitive. My suspicion is bullying by CalPERS prevented Stockton from reducing pensions. Discretion may have been the better part of valor, in this case. But I’d love to see CalPERS ‘s assertion that pensions are constitutionally protected challenged in court.
The DeBord Report quotes a New York Times story; “CalPERS … argues that the state Constitution bars any reduction in pensions — and not just for people who have already retired. State law also forbids cuts in the pensions that today’s public workers expect to earn in the future, CalPERS says, even in cases of severe fiscal distress. Workers at companies have no comparable protection.”
Italics mine. And that’s why the law deserves a robust challenge. Creating a privileged class of people under the law is at best dubious and at worst, un-American. Ask conservatives how they feel about Affirmative Action.
