Editor,
The recent op-ed by the San Diego Tribune on Nov. 19, 2018, is a Hail Mary thrown to the local and state courts to relieve those municipalities who lasciviously awarded perceived excess pension benefits to municipal employees under their stewardship. The basis in law that provides the argument against a final resolution for these municipalities clearly lies within the constitution of the United States not with the Supreme Court of California.
Pensions, when awarded to employees who have a financial stake in the contract by means of contribution of their own funds as well as the employer, have a binding agreement while they are employed and more importantly when they are retired. The agreement can be changed with the acquiescence of all the parties with presumably an equal substitute of benefits for those withdrawn. It is called the law of contracts. The fault lies not with who were awarded these pension benefits but with those who awarded them without the resources to fulfill the obligation.
Les Terry
Burlingame
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(3) comments
Bankruptcy will be the answer to our public pension crisis. Federal courts will give municipalities protection from creditors including pensioners who are unwilling to renegotiate their unsustainable benefits. Remember Federal Law trumps State Law. Just keep an eye on Illinois to see how you give public pensioners a haircut. Public Unions and the outrageous pensions given to them by Democrats is killing budgets up and down our state.
Oh how I wish you were a 30 year firefighter or police officer so that you could understand that both entities put their lives on the line and there is no price tag that would ever come close to compensating men and women firefighters or police officers.
If I wanted to be a firefighter or a police officer I would have become one. What does that have to do with unfunded and unrealistic pensions? I wish you were born with a brain. How about those apples.
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