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Public Pension Debate Heats Up

By Alison St John / Reporter,  Off Mic
Published March 24, 2009 at 6:26 PM PDT
This story was published more than 15 years ago.

Pensions are a touchy subject these days, mainly because anyone with a 401(k)-type plan is dealing with the shock of opening statements that show in black and white just how much their hard-earned savings have shrunk.

So reporting on public employee pensions is a tricky business, with resentment running rampant among taxpayers, who see themselves as subsidizing guaranteed benefits for someone else.

But my goal in reporting how much our cities around the county are paying into pension funds is not to fuel that resentment. It is to add data to the public dialogue on what to do.

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If cities are paying a growing share of the available money into meeting their pension commitments, public services will be affected. Services are already being affected by falling revenues. At some point the public needs to decide what is a reasonable amount to pay for decent public services, provided by people who get a decent salary and benefits.

If the decision is made to privatize services, the risk is that companies will pay their employees the lowest possible wage with no health care or pensions. That will come back to bite communities later, as they have to subsidize health care and shore up the safety net for the aging population. It is obviously better if cities have residents who can support themselves with decent wages and pensions, and contribute to the economy.

But the current trend of falling revenues and rising expenses is not going to just go away when this economic downturn is over. Cities have been watching this trend for some time and the downturn has only hastened the hard choices.

There probably are more cuts to city services that can be made before pension payments become untenable. Perhaps taxpayers will wake up to the need to pay more for a decent quality of life in their community. And maybe, just maybe, the state will stop cutting into city revenues.

But the best time to make decisions is BEFORE cities start going the way many companies have already gone, and threaten bankruptcy. City employees have an interest in keeping their employer healthy, because having decent police protection, parks and libraries is as important to them as it is for everyone else. &

Alison St John
Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.
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