A Rigged Game: In California, pension reform is a noblemdash;if often losingmdash;cause.
By Steven Greenhutbrbrldquo;Certainly the game is rigged,rdquo; science fiction author Robert Heinlein once wrote. ldquo;Donrsquo;t let that stop you; if you donrsquo;t bet you canrsquo;t win.rdquo; The quip should be the new rallying cry of Californiarsquo;s indefatigable band of pension reformers, who continue to fight to rein in the statersquo;s pension debt. Itrsquo;s always been a tough battlemdash;but the latest setback shows that the system is rigged at practically every level. Last month, Californiarsquo;s Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), the quasi-judicial body that oversees the implementation of the statersquo;s collective-bargaining statutes, invalidated the results of a three-year-old referendummdash;Proposition Bmdash;that passed in November 2012 with 66 percent of the vote and would have reduced pension benefits for most new hires in San Diego and moved them to a 401k-style, defined-contribution system. Other reforms have also fallen by the wayside. In June 2012, heavily Democratic San Jose approved with nearly 70 percent of the vote a measure that would have trimmed benefits for current employees. A Santa Clara County judge in 2014 eviscerated the measure, invoking the so-called ldquo;California Rule,rdquo; a 70-year-old court interpretation of the state constitution that has made it impossible for overburdened cities to trim employee costs.
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