PENSION REFORMERS MUST GIVE UP ON PROP. B

In 2012, when Mayor Jerry Sanders led the push for Proposition B — a ballot measure that would end guaranteed pensions for most new city hires —The San Diego Union-tribune Editorial Board offered strong support, and nearly 2 in 3 voters approved the change. The extreme cost of public employees’ retirement benefits is the main reason the California State Auditor’s Office says dozens of cities face severe fiscal risk in coming years.

The case for costly public service retirement benefits is weak, the concept long put to pasture in the private sector and deeply unfair to taxpayers. There’s no evidence it’d be hard to find government job candidates if pensions were akin to Social Security benefits. When state and local government worker pensions began rising in 1999, it was a reflection of union clout — not recruitment difficulties. The result is hundreds of thousands of government retirees who often get 75 percent or more of their final pay for decades after leaving their jobs — which the League of California Cities calls unsustainable.

Yet, now, it’s not just possible but practical to believe that while pension reform is needed, Proposition B must be abandoned. In 2018, the California Supreme Court ruled that Sanders had flouted state labor laws in championing the measure without first negotiating with city unions. On Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Richard Strauss ruled it was impossible to let the city operate under a law that had been illegally adopted. With a Democratic San Diego mayor and only one Republican on a nine-person City Council, defenders of Proposition B have run out of options at City Hall. The old pension thinking will be the new pension thinking.

If Republican Councilman Chris Cate and former GOP Mayors Sanders and Kevin Faulconer want to pursue pension reform, they should craft a ballot measure that is legally bulletproof and gather signatures for it. The case for pension reform has only improved since 2012. But if these Republicans or any other local leaders still hope to salvage Proposition B, they’re wasting everyone’s time. Let’s move on.