Join public service, retire rich




Such a headline would have been laughable 20 years ago when public employee remuneration was substantially lower than that of the private sector.

Today, the tables have turned. The total benefits package received by members of the public labor organization, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), easily surpasses what employees of comparable skill in the private sector might reasonably expect to earn. The trend has bankrupted California and is a driving force behind the need to raise local rates and taxes.

According to a 2009 Ventura County grand jury report, total payments to the county pension fund more than tripled over the last 10 years. The county responded by requiring its employees to make a greater personal contribution to their retirements. It’s time the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District did the same.

At Las Virgenes, employees possess not only their CalPERS state pension, paid entirely by the water district (read: the taxpayers), but also their Social Security plan and 457 plan, which is the public sector’s version of the 401k—and matched, we might add, by taxpayer dollars. This form of double-, even triple-dipping into the taxpayer pocketbook is like rubbing salt into the wounds of the man on the street whose private pension has been whacked in half due to the recession and for whom a bailout is not forthcoming.

Upon retirement, water district employees also receive a lifetime health insurance package. In total, for every dollar in salary paid to a district employee, an additional 44 cents in taxpayer money must be paid in benefits. The average private sector employee receives 22 cents in benefits for every dollar in salary, according to a 2006 Cato Institute report. In this recession, that figure probably is even lower. Former district general manager Jim Colbaugh receives $9,840 a month
in retirement. Retired Conejo Recreation and Park District manager Tex Ward gets a whopping $17,457 a month. That’s Jamie McCourt/Dodger money, and taxpayers can’t afford to be in that league. What’s particularly galling is that even in times of economic catastrophe, all a public agency needs to do is raise taxes or rates if it can’t meet its employee benefits obligation. Private businesses don’t have that luxury.

Next month the water district board will be discussing a new 5year contract for its SEIU employees. The employees must start paying for more of their own benefits because the taxpayers aren’t going to do it anymore. If corrective steps aren’t taken now, the $100,000-a-year retirement salary for top water district management will seem like a drop in the bucket.


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