Public Support Is Low For A California Initiative To Cut Government Employee Pensions

[xchrom]

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/12/banksys-christmas-card-shows-joseph-and-mary-stopped-by-the-wall.html



Only 14% of California voters support a ballot initiative that would give cities and public agencies the ability to negotiate employees’ future retirement benefits, according to a Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group poll.

Proposed by San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, the measure is meant as a proactive way for cities and agencies to reign in rising pension spending. “Any kind of changes will be difficult for our employees, but it’s much better to ask our employees to adjust their future expectations rather than risk seeing their accrued benefits slashed, as has happened in bankrupt cities,” Reed told NPR.

The poll found that 24% of voters said they were were opposed to a constitutional amendment that allowed government agencies to reduce employees’ retirement benefits, 20% said they were not sure how they’d vote and 14% said they would vote against it. The remainder said they were “still considering” the issue.

“The fact that this initiative calls for the modification of retirement benefits only for years of services not yet performed makes little difference to voters,” Pollster pollster Fred Yang said in a statement. “Moreover, even with a neutral reading of the ballot, this measure fails to garner over 36% of the vote in the initial trial heat.”

[Starry Messenger]

1. Well that is welcome news.

Still, it sucks that we have to fight people-hating corporate Democrats in CA. There's another threat coming up this year, a charter school CEO running as a Dem against Tom Torlakson for Education Supe. And Ro Khanna is going to run against Mike Honda. Rust never sleeps, as they say.

[xchrom]

2. +1

[marmar]

3. k/r