Through out Tuesday's elections, voters all over the state made it clear that they want to see pension costs curbed.  And "curbed" meaning they want to see them cut!  Voters are clearing realizing that unmanageable state employee pensions are leaving California dry and unable to pay for public services such as transportation, maintenance of parks, libraries, etc.  Tuesday proved that there is clear public support for pension reform.

There is an ever widening gap between what the state of California promised its retirees and what they actual have in pension funds.  And this gap has already begin to eat into the general budget for basic public services.  In cities all around California such as San Jose, city wide staffing has been dramatically cut to cover rising employee pension costs.

Fortunately, the state is starting to see some actual measures of reform such as what is happening in the city of Modesto.  The citizens of Modesto approved a measure calling for public employees to receive a 401K style retirement plan.  Here the municipal contributes toward retirement savings but doesn't guarantee any type of future retirement returns.  In addition, Modesto voters also approved increases to the public employee retirement age along with provisions to help limit pension spiking.

2012 will see additional campaigns aimed at pension reform.  Initiatives for 2012 are already being worked on  which range from limiting collective bargaining rights, raising retirement ages, and even adding additional taxes on public employee groups.  A new ballot proposal was submitted just last week - Government Employee Pension Reform Act of 2012.

Just as recently as three years ago, people had no sense of what was going on with pensions.  Californians are waking and beginning to realize that the current pension system is untenable and reform and roll backs must happen in order to keep public service solvent!