Guest Commentary by Brian Pepin, Executive Director, The Lincoln Club of San Diego County Nearly five years ago, San Diego voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition B with 66% of the vote. The intent of Prop B was to reform the city employee’s retirement plan by replacing defined benefit pension plans with 401(k)-style defined contribution plans for most new employees. Organized labor eventually challenged …
Court Ruling Clears Way for Permanent Implementation of San Diego Pension Reform Initiative
“Amazing news just in from the courthouse!” says Carl DeMaio. PRESS RELEASE The 4th Appellate District Court just released a unanimous ruling dismissing the lawsuit brought against the City of San Diego by the union-dominated State Public Employees Relations Board (PERB). The decision upholds Proposition B – the landmark Pension Reform Initiative passed by 2/3rds of San Diego voters in …
El Cajon Sets the Record Straight on Pension Reform
Recently the SDUT published an article stating that El Cajon had not enacted pension reform. This article in today’s UT sets the record straight. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/jan/25/tp-el-cajon-has-moved-on-pension-reform/
When Pension Reform Goes Bipartisan
Eventually the mathematical results of under-funding ever more generous pension benefits for state and local employees becomes a problem for Democrats too. Illinois legislators are expected to vote this week on pension reform that would pare back pension benefits in three important ways. Reducing cost of living increases. Increases retirement age. Capping the salary amount available for pension calculations. There …
Pension Reform Panel
SDCTA Breakfast Panel: The Future of Pension Reform: What’s Next? Date: Thursday, March 14, 2013 Time: 7:00 AM – 9:00 AM Organizer: San Diego County Taxpayers Association Sponsor: REFORM San Diego Panelists Include: Carl DeMaio – Founder and Chairman of Reform San Diego Hon. Jan Goldsmith – San Diego City Attorney Tim Davis – Partner at Burke, Williams & Sorensen, …
Golden State Can Be Reinvigorated
If you are worried about California’s future, there’s no shortage of disturbing statistics to keep you up at night. California’s unemployment rate was 9.8 percent in November – and, with a host of new regulatory mandates added when the New Year began, our state is becoming even more unattractive for businesses. California’s three largest pension funds have promised $500 billion …
Carl DeMaio to Chair Reform Groups Focusing on California and San Diego
San Diego – Former Mayoral Candidate Carl DeMaio announced today that he will continue his work as a government watchdog by heading up two reform groups – one focused on the State of California, and one focused on the City of San Diego. “I’m excited to take on these two new roles that allow me to continue to shine a …
Faulconer Speaks Out Against Proposal to Increase Pension Debt
San Diegans voted for Comprehensive Pension Reform to fix the pension problem now. In fact, much of the City of San Diego’s financial turnaround over the past few years is attributable to local leaders taking the bull by the horns and not putting off difficult choices to future generations. Today, Kevin Faulconer continued to speak out against a plan that …
Top Twenty Worst Bills Worthy of the Governor’s Veto
This op-ed, co-authored with Senator Bob Dutton, originally appeared in the Flashreport As of today, the Governor has yet to act on any of these bills. When he is done, we will grade Governor Brown on his performance. The Governor’s “letter grade” will be computed using the following scale… If he vetoes 90% or more, the Governor got an “A”, 80% – …
DeMaio Builds Council Coalition to Ensure “Full and Complete” Pension Reform
I was pleased to announce yesterday that we have built a coalition on the City Council willing to work together to get results for San Diegans through the full and complete implementation of pension reform. While we have come together as a team to get results, Bob Filner is poised to negotiate away or outright invalidate the pension reforms in …
Great News!!!
I have GREAT news to share! Moments ago Judge Vargas DENIED the government labor unions’ legal challenge to Prop B – Pension Reform. The court has rejected a “Restraining Order” that would have prevented the Mayor and City Council from proceeding forward with Prop B. Here’s the brief statement I released upon hearing the news: “Today San Diego citizens scored …
Ahead of Court Hearing, DeMaio Rallies Public to “Protect Pension Reform”
Mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio held a rally with a crowd of dozens of Pension Reform supporters in front of US Bankruptcy Court to send a clear message: San Diegans have spoken by voting for Pension Reform. The rally comes on the eve of an important court hearing on a lawsuit brought by government employee unions seeking to invalidate the results …
URGENT: Getting Pension Reform Done
I have an update on my efforts to reform the pensions at City Hall – and want to alert you of a few potential roadblocks we must confront. As you know, pension reform is my top priority because every dollar we save from pension reform can be put back into restoring the neighborhood services we’ve lost in the past decade. …
Bankruptcy – No Pension Panacea
In the 2010 San Diego City Council race, and in previous mayoral campaigns, the idea of bankruptcy for San Diego has been proffered. However, neither Vallejo, which survived bankruptcy, nor Stockton, now going through bankruptcy have demonstrated that public employee pensions can be discharged in bankruptcy court, at least in California. In California, after the Vallejo experience, the state passed …
Pension Reform Ballot Measure Won Every Council District
Will of the Voters Must Be Respected and Prop B Implemented Prop B, the Pension Reform ballot measure not only passed resoundingly with 66% of the total vote, it also carried each of the nine San Diego Council districts. The overwhelming victory comes as no surprise to the thousands of volunteers who worked tirelessly in every community collecting signatures to …
Faulconer: “People in San Diego were hungry for change”
San Diego’s vote on Proposition B is reverberating across California and the country, creating national headlines. Kevin Faulconer, co-author of the Comprehensive Pension Reform citizens initiative, took to the airwaves to talk about the overwhelming approval of the measure, and how San Diego is setting a blueprint for reform for local governments throughout the nation. Watch the clip here.
City Leaders Lay Out Prop B Pension Reform Implementation Plan
“San Diegans expect results. We must implement Prop B without delay.” That was the message City leaders delivered today following the landslide approval of Proposition B at the ballot box Tuesday. More than 66 percent of voters endorsed the measure, otherwise known as Comprehensive Pension Reform, to eliminate traditional pensions for new employees and replace them with a 401(k)-style plan, similar …
The Left Blames Messaging, Money,
. . . anyone but themselves. I’m not going to waste time searching out all of the left wing excuses for yesterday’s taxpayer victories in Wisconsin, San Diego and San Jose. The tried and true playbook will be to turn to the courts to defeat the will of the voters in the California elections and to blame money and a …
Election Hangover? A Polling Postmortem Cures What Ails Ya’
Hungover? Well, depending on your horse(s), you were either drinking victory punch (Go Walker!) or suicide smoothies well into the night. I joined in the Golden Hall festivities via the scrappy San Diego CityBeat live election night blog hosted by our very own San Diego Rostra and our lefty friends at OBRag. If you didn’t follow along with our 100 …
At Least the Fleece Awards Were Cute: SDCTA Hands Out 2012 Goldens
Smart governing decisions saving taxpayer dollars and collaborative initiatives took top honors, while cavalier attitudes and lost opportunities were called out and shamed at the San Diego County Taxpayers Association (SDCTA)’s 17th annual Goldens Awards Dinner, held at the Town and Country Resort & Convention Center in Mission Valley. Remote controls were nowhere in sight as the evening’s theme “Taxpayer …
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