November 24, 2004

BAKERSFIELD IS GOING WITHOUT POLICE AND FIREMEN as the city's general fund gets eaten alive by fat pensions for middle-aged police and firemen who are now retiring on their 50th birthdays at 100% pay, thanks to union contracts negotiated by state and local politicians. Quotable:
[Pension costs in] the city of Bakersfield .. have more than doubled in the past two years. In the 2003-04 fiscal year the city watched its pension costs climb to more than $10 million, money drawn from the general fund .. The following year those retirement costs jumped by an extra $7.8 million.

The city has been forced to leave police and fire department jobs vacant, even as waves of those workers retired ..

"There's very few interest groups in city elections other than employee groups," [consultant Gene] Tackett said .. Pension deals handed to police and firefighter unions several years ago gave employees the chance to earn close to 100 percent of their annual salaries in retirement at age 50.

Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack