CA Public Employees Get Set to Square off with CA Taxpayers

In what's likely to result in a nasty fiscal skirmish between California public employees and over-taxed California taxpayers, the California state controller's has pointed out that the sweetheart retirement benefits promised to state workers are currently being underfunded.

Controller John Chiang's office issued a report Tuesday showing the growing divide between what the state owes retirees for health and dental benefits and what it has saved so far.

The gap has grown to nearly $52 billion, about $3.6 billion over last year's estimate.

While promising outsized retirement benefits to state workers might have previously seemed like the politically expedient thing to do, it's clear now that such generosity is no longer feasible or possible.

The best course of action for state lawmakers to take, perhaps with a little urging from California taxpayers that, you know, actually care about whether their private property is stolen for the benefit of other people, is to drastically reduce the retirement benefits offered to California retirees.

In an era when it's the rare worker who receives a defined benefit pension from a private company, it's time for state workers to realize that the public can't afford the same for them.