Perch Fishing For CalPers

Interesting piece many might have missed in the news regarding the Surfperch Tournament held for the Samoa Fire District this weekend. I had no idea:

”Every year our CalPERS (retirement fund for state employees) bill is nearly 100 percent of our budget,”

And that's just for the few firefighters from back in the days of old when the Samoa District had paid firefighters. It's been an all- volunteer department since 2001.

I suppose it shouldn't be any surprise that retirements are 100% of their budget. Still, that has to be one of the best examples of where we'll end up if we don't do something about the public employee retirement systems.

Addendum: Here's the commentary Ernie refers to in his comment.

One thing that we need to keep in mind when discussing public (or any other) pensions, is that these pensions shouldn't be the only income public workers should have to look forward to after retiring.

The commentary mentions social security, but nothing says these 20 to 30 year employees can't save and invest money on their own throughout their lifetimes. Very often they do just that.

There's also nothing saying retired employees can't find employment after they've retired and a LOT of them do. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone, but I can't think of one retired government employee I know that didn't go out and get another job after retiring.