Pension reform begins with the current workforce
While Governor Brown
was acknowledging yesterday that pension reform is a
possible element of a budget solution, a bipartisan, independent state
commission released a report charting a bold path for
pension reforms that would create both short- and long-term budget savings.
The Little Hoover
Commission, of which I’m a member, unanimously adopted Public Pensions for
Retirement Security, calling for Legislative action to establish the legal
authority to allow state and local governments to freeze pension benefits for
current workers, and allowing those workers to accrue future benefits under
more sustainable pension plans.
After ten months of
public hearings and background research, Commissioners concluded that
California’s pension crisis cannot be solved without addressing the obligations
of current employees, many of whom have accrued generous benefits augmented
during the go-go years of the dot.com and real estate bubbles.
Can You See Clearly Now?
This piece was co-authored by Dr. Wallace Walrod, Vice President of Economic Development & Research, Orange County Business Council.
I serve on a local business advisory committee to the South
Coast Air Quality Management District-folks charged with clearing the air for
better health and visibility.
They’ve done a good job over the last 40 years. The air quality of Southern California has
gotten much better even with major population growth and economic
development.
But there is always one more rule to impose, one more
particulate to regulate, one more greenhouse gas to consider-it’s government’s
job to do that-and one more business fails to grow or simply folds under the
weight and cost of compliance. Not just air
quality but add the tens of thousands of regulations, fees and taxes coming out
of numerous local, state and federal agencies today. And millions of folks out of work, a stagnant
economy in California, and a bottom-ranking on any objective list as the
nation’s "worst place to do business."
Even Fast Food is Looking for a Quick Exit
Recently, Steven Greenhut of Cal Watch Dog wrote in the Orange County Register on why Carl’s Jr.’s parent company, CKE, is likely going to move its headquarters from Carpenteria to Texas. It was a fascinating insight into what companies are seeing in the business climate of California and why they do not feel this state is business friendly. The article came from a speech CKE CEO Andrew Puzder gave to the California Chamber of Commerce recently.
In the speech Puzder stated that it costs CKE Restaurants $250,000 more to build a restaurant in California than one in Texas, and that once a restaurant is built in California, the labor laws are incredibly restrictive. For example, California’s rigid work rules classify managers as regular employees. They are mandated to work a maximum of eight hours a day and take breaks at specific times of their shift. So when a busload of tourists comes into a CKE restaurant, if the manager is on a break, he or she must sit there and do nothing, rather than do their job.