July 12, 2010

Who Wants to Play Charades with Joan?
We know she’s good at it, just look at pension reform

Everyone’s favorite Assemblywoman-in-Absentia Joan Buchanan knows a good charade according to the Contra Costa Times.  They editorialized on her charade skills earlier this month but the sad part is it is at the expense of California taxpayers and the future of the Golden State.

Buchanan & Company have decided to play charades with pension reform…which she gives lip service to while actually giving us pension status quo.  In the July 5 editorial, the Times asks Joan & Co. “to decide if they’re serious about reform of public employee pensions or owned by the unions that helped fund their campaigns.”

Unfortunately for California, Joan has clearly decided she’s owned by the unions.

You see, Joan joined up with Sacramento liberals Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco), Alberto Torrico (D-Fremont) and Sen. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) to author “legislation masquerading as pension reform.”  This legislation would make the “spiking” of pensions which have contributed to California’s unfunded liabilities, permanent.

Spiking allows public employees to use overtime, hazard pay, and vacation time to artificially boost their final year salary used to calculate retirement benefits.  The Times points out the case of Craig Bowen, former San Ramon Valley fire chief, “who turned his $222,500 final-year salary into a starting annual pension of $284,000.”

And then there’s the Contra Costa Sanitary District, where two-thirds of retiring employees have spiked their pensions 25-41%.  Wow.

The egregious abuse was too much for Sen. DeSaulnier, who has apparently asked to be removed from the bill.  But not Joan.

California voters deserve a representative that will do the job.  That means making tough decisions to get our budget balanced, our economy moving again, and creating jobs for Californians.  As San Ramon Mayor, Abram Wilson balanced the budget every year and funded an unprecedented budget reserve equal to 50% of the city’s budget.  He worked with the business community to create jobs and make San Ramon a competitive business environment.

That’s the kind of leadership we need in Sacramento.