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What a career plan. Go to work for the fire or police dept, work your way up the ranks for 40 years, then retire making more than a million dollars per year.
And the poor tax payers in CA are left holding the bag.
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Two retired Los Angeles city employees—Earl Paysinger, a former deputy police chief, and Emile Mack, a former assistant fire chief—pulled down more than $1.4 million apiece in pension benefits last year, giving them the largest nest eggs across all California's public retirement systems.
Last week Transparent California released data showing that more than 62,000 retired California public workers earn at least six figures in annual retirement benefits. Paysinger and Mack are two of the seven members of the exclusive million-dollar pension club. All seven retired from the Los Angeles police or fire departments.
In a related story, more than 20 cents of every dollar spent by the Los Angeles city government now goes to fund the retirements of former employees. "The city's general fund payments for pensions and retiree healthcare reached $1.04 billion last year, eating up more than 20% of operating revenue—compared with less than 5% in 2002," the Los Angeles Times reported last year.
This is not just a Los Angeles issue with the absolutely insane pensions that former employees are collecting.
The people of Los Angeles voted for these politicians that decided that it was a good idea to keep compensating city employees after they no longer provide their services for the city.
Many cities have given huge pension promises over the years and each year more and more of the city revenue goes to pensions.
I can't really imagine how bad these city services will be in 2030, many cities are struggling in the middle of an economic bubble to even fund basic services because of the pension costs and very high levels of compensation and health plans that are much more generous than a typical private sector worker.
I personally am not a fan at all of big cities, so it is just find the entire way they operate interesting.
The CalPERS fund alone is more than $139 billion in the red. The East Bay Times reported last year that CalPERS' retirement debt "averages out to $11,000 for every California household," a relevant comparison since "taxpayers, not government workers, must make up the shortfall."
So, tell us who in the private sector at that level gets over a million in retirement pay.
More importantly-ones the taxpayers are on the hook to pay. The problem is that we allow public employee unions to donate to (aka bribe) the same politicians that approve their salary and benefits. Can you say conflict of interest? I know you can.
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