Pension Time
The governor has put the question of out-of-control public employee pensions square in the middle of the budget fight. Good for him. The pension question must be tackled and there is no better time.
While public employee unions create a list of 31 tax increases and cry “corporate greed,” in justifying some of the tax increase proposals, it is time to balance the discussion with an examination of what might be labeled “pension greed.”
I don’t know of anyone in the private sector who enjoys retirement benefits anywhere close to those offered to retired public employees in health care benefits or early retirement age. Many who use Social Security as their retirement fund are doing the math and putting over retirement not at age 62 or 65, but hoping they can reach age 70 to get a fuller benefit. That payout still pales against the public retirement dollars paid out at age 55, or even 50 for many public employees. Let’s not even talk about the health benefit.
The Importance of Governors And Their Schedules
The self-destruction of Mark Sanford raises an issue that usually only gets talked about in newsrooms: the need for governors and other elected executives to put out detailed schedules, and the fact that many of them fail to do so.
Sanford, according to press reports, didn’t release his schedules. Reporters and editors in South Carolina complained, but the issue never attracted public attention. And so the governor of the Palmetto State managed to escape scrutiny of his activities for far too long.
That – and not Sanford’s personal behavior – is the public outrage in this sordid story.
Yes, yes, I’ve heard all the arguments from the staffers who advise governors and elected officials. “Disclosing our full schedule would compromise strategy.” “The governor has the right to secrecy in his deliberations.” “It’s a matter of protecting the governor’s security, though I’m not at liberty to discuss the details…” Blah. Blah. Blah.
Steve Poizner Takes on Iran
We’ve seen a lot of media coverage of the brutal suppression of pro-democracy protests in Iran over the last several weeks. Although a lot of our leaders have condemned Tehran for the way in which the Iranian government has handled the protests, few of them have actually bothered to step up and do something about it. That’s why I applaud California Insurance Commissioner and 2010 Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner for his bold and forward-thinking action yesterday to limit the amount of money invested by insurers in Iran, which is also one of the world’s most prominent state sponsors of terrorism. It’s about time that we had leadership in Sacramento that does more than just make empty promises.
Yesterday, Commissioner Poizner used the authority vested in him to enforce an existing state law that prohibits California-based insurance companies from investing in corporations that fund the Iranian regime. That means that he will order California insurers to divest of Iranian government holdings and, moreover, he will order a survey of these insurers to ensure that they are complying with the law.