Well, it's not bureaucrats we are talking about. We are talking about janitors, school teachers, health workers, maintenance people, office workers, coaches, police, highway patrol, and so on, who make a big block of voters as well as enjoying the support of newspapers and much of the public at large.
Also, when these pension funds were first established and for many years thereafter they were terrifically underfunded. Only over a period of maybe 50 years have they crept up so that in some states they are (or were, before the market decline) greatly overfunded.
There are terrific differences between states, however, so I wouldn't venture to guess how it would play out. There may also be legal recourse on the part of organizations of state employees. If you take several hundred thousand people, you can raise quite a lot of money for legal fees if their pensions are threatened. There have certainly been, year after year, repeated promises of certain definite retirement benefits. Also, much of the money comes right out of the salaries of the employees.
It's hard for me to see how a maintenance worker in a state-owned building qualifies as a "bureaucrat"-- or a grade school teacher either. |
