Fishy legislative pensions? It's not true
Patty Berg
Article Launched: 03/06/2008 01:27:31 AM PST
There's just one little problem with Jim Garvey's My Word column that appeared in this space on Tuesday (”Chesbro playing political musical chairs”).
It isn't true.
Mr. Garvey argued that there's something fishy about state legislators running for one office after another to pump up their fat legislative pensions.
It's pretty damning stuff. Makes politicians look like a very greedy bunch. But the simple fact is legislators don't get a pension. Nothing. Not one thin dime.
It's been that way since 1990, when voters passed Proposition 140, which not only installed one of the nation's toughest term-limits laws, but also stripped lawmakers of their retirement benefits.
So, none of the state senators or Assembly members from the North Coast elected since 1992 will receive any benefits from the state as a result of their time in the Capitol. That, of course, includes me. I will leave the Legislature at the end of this year, as required by the same term-limits law that ensured I would receive no pension for my time there.
Mr. Garvey's instinct is understandable, of course. He is a retired peace officer, and, if he served the people of California, his pension is paid from California's public purse, so he's absolutely correct to be concerned about the way that purse is handled.
It's no secret that California is in a budgetary crisis. The governor has declared a fiscal emergency. The Legislature has met in special session and has taken the rare step of trimming the current year budget. And we're not done, either. The Legislature and the governor have solved about half of the $16 billion deficit problem. But we still must close an $8 billion gap for the coming fiscal year.
As chair of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, I am charged with overseeing programs that offer aid to some of California's neediest people. I am loathe to reduce spending on our foster youth, or on supportive services for seniors. I don't want to vote to provide one type of medical service, while discontinuing another -- all options that have been put on the table by the governor's office.
The governor has proposed a borrow-and-cut budget that includes a whole host of unappealing options, from closing state parks to stripping money from schools. Clinics could close; teachers could be laid off. He seems to have embraced the conservative mantra that California has a “spending problem” and not a “revenue problem.” The truth, of course, is that we have both kinds of problems.
The state's non-partisan Legislative Analyst, Elizabeth Hill, provides the Legislature with financial advice untarnished by political consideration. Hill's team of financial experts are not allied with Democrats or Republicans. Her recommendations are based on sound fiscal principles.
She knows how to balance a book; when she talks, people listen. And she said with simple clarity: We have to look at both sides of the ledger. We have to reduce spending, of course, but we also have to bring in more revenue.
The Legislative Analyst provided a list of loopholes and tax breaks, billions of dollars worth, and suggested we can raise revenue without raising taxes, simply by removing some loopholes.
Unfortunately, conservatives balked. They have even voted repeatedly to protect the so-called sloophole, a tax loophole that allows the very rich to avoid paying sales tax on yachts simply by mooring them out of state before enjoying them in California. That leaves us with a situation in which sick people may not be covered for a doctor's visit, your child's teacher may be given a pink slip, but yacht club members avoid paying taxes.
It is going to be a difficult year, there's no way around that. The budget problem is huge. The solutions are not pleasant. But I believe in the people of California, and I am forever optimistic about our future.
Assemblywoman Patty Berg represents the counties of Del Norte, Humboldt, Trinity, Mendocino, Lake and portions of Sonoma. She is in her third and final term in the state Assembly. She resides in Sacramento.
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