State employees in California retire as early as age 50 with pensions that divert money from higher education and other programs. That diversion would not be taking place if the pensions had been sufficiently pre-funded with contributions from employees and employers when the pensions were awarded but they were not. That’s because the pre-funding amounts were set unduly low by boards of public pension funds controlled by pension beneficiaries in whose interests it was to keep pre-funding amounts lower than the amounts required to protect future generations. If those pension boards had been controlled by people who cared about future generations, pension pre-funding would have been higher so that today there would be lower or no pension deficits. But they weren’t and that’s why annual taxpayer spending on state pension costs has grown from $1.3 billion in 2000 to $12.2 billion in 2023.
David is a clear thinker who presents data & reality unclouded by personal perferences