Double Whammy

That's the Los Angeles Daily News' word for what's coming because of the stock market decline and, no, they're not talking about the bank bailout. They're talking about the decline in value of public employee pension funds.

As the Daily News points out, public employee pension funds have been gotten more and more generous over the years and were becoming more and more of a burden on communities- Vallejo being probably the first of cities to declare bankruptcy because they didn't feel they could pay too much for their police and fire services.

Now it looks like that might happen to more and more communities because of the decline of value in stocks, although I don't believe the stock market will stay down for too long. But, even without the stock market, public employee pay and pensions have been a problem, as Vallejo exemplifies.

Closer to home, here in Eureka the city council seems pretty much of the mind that police and fire services should come first. That makes me a bit nervous as there's no telling how much money they'll be willing to throw at the police and fire departments. Let's hope they keep their heads clear enough to realize the price we'll be paying if they go too far.