Public pensions’ modest payouts

Re “Officials draw heat for taking public pensions,” April 11

Once again, the actions of a few are being used to damn the many. California public employees are accused of enjoying “lucrative benefits,” as if we all were drawing pensions from $83,000 to $173,000 per year, just as the double-dipping legislators described in this article are.

In fact, according to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the average benefit is about $34,000 per year for state employees; for school district employees who belong to CalPERS, the average is only about $19,000. The Pension Rights Center found that, in 2014, the median state pension was about $14,000 per year.

Most retirees have contributed to Social Security in our careers, but we will not get full benefits because of our state pensions.

CalPERS also estimates that the $17.9 billion paid every year results in $31 billion in economic activity. Retirees are still buying groceries, paying rent, using utilities and putting cash into their communities.

Pension reform may be necessary to assure a selfsustaining system. However, crafting solutions to punish state workers based on the advantages enjoyed by the politically well connected only inflicts poverty on retirees. David Middleton

Rancho Mirage

Although it may be appropriate to ask questions about the size of public employee pensions and the age at which public employees can draw those pensions, your article about certain state legislators drawing both a state salary and a public pension focused on something that simply isn’t a problem.

Even if the individuals discussed in your article had not gone to work for the state, they still would have been drawing their pensions, and all that would have changed is that someone else would have been receiving the state salary.

So the so-called doubledipping described in your article doesn’t actually cost the taxpayer anything. Steven Renick

Los Alamitos