The most Military/Veteran friendly College Commencements!

[MSK9]

At the State level - maybe, but when I worked for the San Diego Police Department, we were the lowest starting pay of agency in the county (and there were about seventeen of them!) at $58,000 gross; coupled with the California's current median home price ($545,000), quality of life wasn't what you might think.

 While I generally agree with cutting some of the ridiculous pensions out there, law enforcement is one I would never cut considering the emotional and physical price we pay and danger we face.

The problem is, we have people work 30 years (I think 20 for law enforcement) and then get paid a huge % of their salary for the rest of their life.  I know of a job where someone has come in and started working, and is 5 years from retirement.  At the current time, there are THREE other people who held that job that are getting retirement at the present.  So we are paying FOUR people for working ONE job (3 at 80% of what they made).  After a very short amount of time, you are paying more in pensions than you are paying current salaries.  That is unsustainable, no matter what the job is or if you faced danger or whatever.  The upside down pyramid just keeps growing at the top.  So you may think that law enforcement SHOULD get those great pensions, but when the state goes bankrupt, believe me, it won't matter what anyone thought.  Math still matters, you can't get away from it.  And BTW, most of the largest pensions in the state goes to public safety - so there may be a city here and there who doesn't pay as well as others, but for the most part they are the most well-paid positions in the state.

The average public pension in CA is now $68k PLUS medical and other benefits.  There are currently 21k people earning more than $100k a year in pensions.  And there are currently 220k employees making more than $100k a year, which means all of them will earn close to $100k in pensions when they retire.  

Unfunded pensions is currently at ONE TRILLION dollars in CA.

I appreciate your position and you're right, math does matter. My pension was not funded by the state but by San Diego city, paid with contributions from Officers like me with little or no employer matching.

From a financial stand point, I understand your position, but it isn't just about the numbers. There must be an incentive for law enforcers to do the job. Law enforcement is a critical societal function. I think its unreasonable to think that those of us who sign up, do the right thing and retire honorably should receive nothing but a pat on the back when it's time to hang up the badge. I'm less than ten years into my career and already have hip and spine problems. I have scarred lungs from evacuating people from structure fires, I've broken bones and have torn my Achilles tendon, I have a torn meniscus; all for the good of others. My retirement plan DOESN'T include medical, which I would undoubtedly need if I continued on this path. Those who are lucky enough to have it, I'm fine with it, because as far as I'm concerned, they earned it.

There are plenty of other entitlements that could be cut to lighten the load, ones that weren't paid for in blood, sweat and tears.