PUBLIC COMMENTS OF KRIS HUNT

July 12, 2007

. . . speaking before California's Public Employee Post-Employment Benefits Commission at its meeting in Burlingame:

Good morning, my name is Kris Hunt and I am the Executive Director of the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association. I am also one of the proponents of the Public Employee Benefits Reform Initiative.

I would like to use my brief time here to urge this Commission to recommend a statewide cap on retirement benefits for new government employees. As my home county has clearly demonstrated, most local officials simply do not have the guts to stand up to the public employee unions and make the benefit changes needed to protect taxpayers and secure vital government services.

Unfortunately, most public employee union officials scoff at those who call for action on the growing public retiree benefits crisis and resort to personal attacks to keep courageous messengers at bay. Some of those crisis deniers can be found on this dais. Fortunately, Grand Juries throughout California are immune to such intimidation.

Two months ago the Contra Costa Grand Jury issued its sixth report since 2002 on our retirement benefits crisis, the last entitled Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! The County Drifts Ever Closer to the OPEB Rocks. Their report said:

"The County Board of Supervisors has not adequately addressed the financial obligations of the Other Post Employment Benefits facing the County and, as a result, is mortgaging the County's future."

And, "Difficult choices must be made now. Inaction by the Board of Supervisors, while it continues to "study the problem", only postpones the steps that are clearly required."

So what was the response to this latest plea for fiscal responsibility? Did they take the Grand Jury's "clearly required" steps?

Not a chance. The Supervisors once again kicked the can down the road with a meaningless promise to divert to retirement costs the money currently paying for other projects as those obligations are fulfilled during the next 16 years - if that money actually materializes. Then, the supervisors only mustered enough courage to adopt a "40 percent funding target" for OPEB, leaving to future taxpayers and elected officials the real problem of dealing with the $2.6 billion OPEB liability.

Waiting for local governments to take serious action on retiree benefits is like waiting in a field for Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin. Every year, taxpayers are disappointed and precious time is wasted on a silly charade.

A statewide cap on pension and retiree healthcare benefits for new government employees could save $500 billion over 30 years -- enough savings to cover unfunded liabilities for current employees and to protect the vital government services which make our communities safe and promote our quality of life.

Our initiative not only imposes a statewide cap on retirement benefits offered to new employees, it also eliminates the salary spiking, fund raids, payment holidays and retroactive benefit abuses that have tainted defined benefit systems throughout California.

In closing, I hope this commission has the courage to recommend a meaningful statewide retirement benefits cap and to stop the abuses that plague our retirement systems. This is not the time for palliative half-measures that mollify the inattentive and appease special interests. The cost of this fiscal crisis grows day after day after day.

California needs strong statewide leadership from this commission and the legislature.

In the words of Contra Costa's Grand Jury, "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!"