PENSIONS: A public problem

I find Chris Carlson’s column of reaching out and establishing a list of where he and a recent adversary agree (so they don’t remain enemies) very refreshing.

And Chris and Chris agree on term limits for elected officials AND civil servants. So would term limited out civil servants still get public pension(s) like our Post Falls legislator in Boise does?

I find it interesting that even former California Gov. Gray Davis regrets signing that 90 percent of pay at 50 years old peace officer pension plan into law as well as the taxpayer funded golden parachute for $1.6 million currently pensioned retired California public workers like retired fire fighters, bureaucrats, DMV workers and teachers.

While public pension plans currently assume a 7.5 percent return on their investments, a Stanford professor recently said that California’s $250 billion unfunded pension liability would grow to $1 trillion if the rate of return on their investments falls to 4 percent… Talk about a coming day of reconciliation!

Yet we have an unchallenged California public pensioner representing Post Falls in the Idaho Legislature who wants a better Idaho pension plan for public workers here? So we can bankrupt Idaho too? Good plan.

MIKE RENO

Post Falls