Pension Debate
Let me clear up a couple of misconceptions that have been raised of late.
Michael Carre, acting general manager of the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, mentioned during his recent comments before the Board of Supervisors that I was included in its 2001 reopener negotiations on retroactive pension benefit increases.
Not true. I only wish it were.
Not one of the 2001-02 Board of Supervisors extended me the courtesy of a telephone call or correspondence to get my opinion on the topic. They knew I sat on the Orange County Employees Retirement System board of directors, but not a peep about this enhancement.
I know that public employee bargaining unit agreement negotiating is done behind closed doors. But encumbering the taxpayers through the gifting of public funds, without the benefit of counsel from a fellow elected on the retirement board, seems short-sighted in retrospect.
The second misconception is that because I sat on the OCERS board that I was involved in increasing benefits. Not true. The state Legislature presents bills to the governor to enhance public employee pension formulas. Former Gov. Gray Davis gladly obliged (after receiving millions of dollars in public employee union political contributions). The retirement board is responsible for collecting the appropriate plan sponsor employer and employee contributions, investing the available funds and disbursing the agreed-to benefits. The plan sponsor sets the benefit formulas, not the retirement board.
With a 50% increase in benefits, a fully funded OCERS went to a two-thirds funded system. Last year, after receiving more than $400 million in contributions and earning more than $800 million in revenues, the funded status went from 71% to 73%. Ouch.
Dumping such a large liability on a retirement system is going to create some measure of stress. If we are still $2.2 billion underfunded, then at 7.75% interest, it will cost us some $6 billion overall in contributions to resolve this debt over 30 years. Ouch, again.
So what is a fiscal watch dog to do? Bark.
John Moorlach
County supervisor
2nd District
AB 8 Healthcare Bill
Health insurance is too expensive for many small businesses and their employees to purchase. The Legislature’s solution,do it anyway,is not the answer.
Assembly Bill 8 is a job killer and an economic killer. Instead of trying to make insurance more affordable by reducing costs, the bill simply requires all businesses that can’t afford to purchase health insurance today to start doing so or pay the state a 7.5% healthcare tax.
This bill gives an unelected board the right to raise this tax whenever necessary. It is only common sense that the tax is going to go up because this new government program won’t have enough money to keep up with growing expenses.
The Legislature has called this new healthcare tax a fee. This is not a fee, it is a tax. The only reason it is called a fee is so the Legislature can pass it with a simple partisan majority and avoid our Constitution’s requirement of a two-thirds vote to increase taxes. Recent court cases indicate the bill probably violates federal law, too.
AB 8 does not solve our healthcare problem, does not share responsibility and is neither legal nor responsible public policy.
Greg Meyers
Yorba Linda
Being Bipartisan
Sixty years ago, the word bipartisan meant both parties working together for the good of the people. Today it means all parties fighting each other to show their mutual contempt and disdain for the people.
Michael Glueck
Newport Beach
