PENSIONS, NOT POT

The SEIU Wants to Legalize Marijuana to Help Solve the State's Budget
Crisis. That's a Bad Idea. The Reals Solution Is Pension Reform.

I was surprised to read that leaders of the state's biggest union --
the SEIU -- had decided to endorse Proposition 19, which would allow
Californians to legally grow and possess marijuana. Any patrol
officer, judge or district attorney will tell you that Proposition 19
is a flawed initiative that would bring about a host of legal
nightmares and risks to public safety. It would also make California
a laughingstock.

Leaders of the Service Employees International Union say they support
Proposition 19 so the state can avoid cuts to healthcare, home care,
education and elderly care programs. Yet even the best-case estimates
show Proposition 19 (assuming it would even pass constitutional
muster) bringing in only $1.4 billion in annual revenue -- a fraction
of our current deficit.

The SEIU could embrace a far better and more responsible solution for
saving state programs: pension reform.

Getting a handle on pensions would preserve far more jobs and prevent
many more cuts than legalizing marijuana, and it would do so without
the legal complications and safety risks inherent in Proposition 19.
Yet for the past year, the SEIU's leaders have been fighting
tooth-and-nail against common-sense measures to rein in a debt that
is unsustainable and is severely affecting the state's finances.

Indeed, California is suffering from a series of irresponsible
decisions by SEIU-backed politicians, who have guaranteed huge
retirement benefits to state workers without setting aside the money
to pay for them. Because of this, we have $550 billion in unfunded
retirement debt that is costing us $6.5 billion this year. Without
reform, that unfunded debt will double in cost every 4.5 years. A
single bill the Legislature passed in 1999 (SB 400, which
retroactively boosted state workers' pensions without a way to pay
for it) is now responsible for about $2.5 billion of this year's
deficit. State pension costs for CalPERS are more than 2,000% higher
today than they were 10 years ago, and that's not a misprint.

How in the world can anyone consider that an even distribution of the
people's money? And how could someone think legalizing marijuana is
the best way to solve it?

Six state employees unions have reached agreements with the state to
roll back pensions for new hires. For example, the deal the
California Assn. of Highway Patrolmen and other unions negotiated
requires new employees to work additional years to receive full
benefits, bases final retirement compensation on the highest three
years of wages instead of the highest year, and increases the amount
employees must contribute toward their retirement to a minimum of 10%.

These are reasonable changes to the system that members of these
unions have accepted. They have made it possible for the unions'
members to avoid furloughs during this economic crisis, and they have
lessened the state's long-term debt. Similar changes with the rest of
the unions would preserve funding for higher education, public
safety, healthcare, home care, education and elderly care programs.

Sadly, SEIU's leadership is refusing to make any rollbacks to
pensions. We understand that interest groups must fight for their
members, but for the SEIU to endorse legalizing marijuana means it is
willing to risk public safety to protect unsustainable pension costs.

The notion that we have to choose between legalizing drugs and
education funding or care for the elderly is false. The answer is to
prioritize the money we already have, and funding pensions 2000%
higher than we were 10 years ago means we don't have our priorities straight.

SEIU members should tell their leadership that instead of focusing on
extremist causes, they could agree to some common-sense rollbacks in
what new workers are guaranteed. No one is asking for draconian
concessions; even after changes to bring costs under control, we
would still spend $2 billion more on compensation and benefits this
year than last.

There are no magic solutions to our state's problems, but there are
some manageable ones, and SEIU's leaders know what they are. Scaling
back pensions, not legalizing marijuana, would show our children that
we have our priorities right.