SampleLetters to the Editor for Newspapers:
Sample Letter A:
I have worked as a secretary for a local high school for 25 years and I take issue with those who claim public employees live lavishly on fat pensions. Most California public employees are barely getting by on their pensions, which average just $2,000 a month. Classified school employees average even less at only $1,193 a month.
California’s public workerssupport laws to stop pension spiking and evenbacked strong legislation last year – vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger – that would have virtually ended the practice. State employees alsohave agreed to pay more toward our own pensions to help the state’s budget mess. It is unfair to claim that our pensions are bankrupting the state. Pension costs make up less than 5 percent of the state budget. What’s more, we spend our retirement benefits in our local communities and help boost the economy.
California politicians should think twice before giving in to the wealthy, politically motivated interests targeting the families of those who have dedicated decades to public service.
Sample Letter B:
Californians need to know the truth behind the recent barrage of attacks on public employee pensions, many financed by anonymous wealthy donors. As a state scientist for more than three decades, I cannot stand for out-of-state billionaires swooping into our state and trying to undo promises that California’s government made with the people who serve the public.
With my experience and education level, I had opportunities to work in the private sector for a larger salary. The promise of a secure retirement, coupled with my desire to serve the public, led me to stay in the public sector. Now, however, private sector workers whose 401(k)s have suffered think it is unfair that I should enjoy a stable nest egg.
Don’t blame the millions of public employees for the economic turmoil caused by Wall street greed. Most of us live on modest pensions, averaging $26,000 a year. Please keep your promises to us and do not buy into the myths behind these politically motivated attacks.
Sample Letter C:
Myths and untruths spread by pension busters have cast a dark cloud over public pensions. Claims that pension costs will bankrupt state government are flat wrong; California’s entire contribution to retirement is less than 5 percent of the state budget.
Headlines paint public pensions as the cause of all of the state’s problems, and spotlight only the rare cases of abuse. Pension spiking is wrong, but only a small fraction of retirees have pensions above $100,000. The average CalPERS pension is about $25,000 per year. Half of CalPERS retirees receive $18,000 per year or less in benefits. Unlike the private sector, many public employees do not receive Social Security, making their pensions their sole source of retirement income, other than savings.But fairness requires that those workers who have dedicated their careers to public service should be able to retire with the dignity that that service has brought them.
Sample Letter D:
It is important to ensure the fairness and long-term stability of California’s public pension plans. But ill-thought ideas like requiring teachers, police and firefighters to join social security would not provide any immediate cost savings, while adding significant new costs to create and administer the new plans it proposes.
Another idea, shifting more of future pension savings to defined contribution 401(k)-like plans, would make those savings less secure while adding significant new program costs.The best idea? Continue working in good faith at the bargaining table for needed changes, focusing on the true issues and not those manufactured to make a political point. Meanwhile, in our view, the larger pension concern should be for the vast and growing majority of American workers with savings hardly a quarter of what is needed to retire in dignity.
As our parents and grandparents told us, a secure pension is the core around which a decent retirement is built. But with secure pensions evaporating and pressure increasing to move future retirees to insecure 401k-type retirement savings, it is clear that today’s pensions are not your grandfather’s pensions.
If this goes on, the future for tomorrow’s middle class retirees will be bleak. We have already seen how the Great Recession we have just lived through trashed the retirement savings of vast numbers of private sector Americans, forcing them to work far longer for retirements that will be a shadow of what they had hoped for.
Now the attack on retirement security is moving to the public sector, where pensions for other middle class workers, teachers, police, firefighters, nurses and other public servants are increasingly at risk. We should instead strive for a structure that ensures a secure old age and retirement for all Californians
A wholesale dismantling of California’s public pension system would be a mistake beyond comprehension not only to state workers, but to California’s entire economy and every Californian that deserves a secure retirement.
Sample Letter E:
The hullabaloo about the supposed excesses of pensions for public workers overshadows an important reality. California’s public worker unions and its pension system have supported curbs, backing strong legislation last year – unaccountably vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger – that would have virtually ended pension spiking and restored balance to the system. Meanwhile, state employee unions went to the bargaining table – the best place to work out pension changes -- and negotiated agreements that significantly tightened the state’s pension formula and doubled what workers will pay towards their own retirement. The savings to the last state budget from such changes was $400 million.
At the state level these negotiated changes restored the old rule that pensions be calculated on the average of the highest three years’ salary and doubled worker contributions to 10% of salary. Public employee groups supported a broad range of such reforms in 2010, many of which were vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger.
This is part of a broader story of successful local government negotiations to lower pension costs according to a survey just released by the League of California Cities. It shows that many California cities have already worked cooperatively with the unions representing their employees to bring lower from moderated pension formulas. Some 40% of cities have already negotiated employer-employee cost sharing. Almost a quarter of cities now have negotiated a cheaper 2nd pension tier. Even pension plans for police and fire agencies have dramatically increased the amounts these public safety workers will have to contribute to their pensions.