By threatening to withhold mass transit funds, Washington is preventing California from realizing savings from its pension reforms. It isn't the first time special interest legislation has stood in the way of cheaper government.
Merit-based hiring systems in government are more than a century old, and some of them make managing the public workforce absurdly difficult and complicated. They need to be updated for the modern era.
Residency requirements for municipal workers make it harder to recruit the best and the brightest, but a statewide ban like Wisconsin's may not be the best way to end them.
There's abundant evidence that greater Boston's transit agency could save a lot of money by contracting out bus maintenance. But thanks to a restrictive state law, that's not likely to happen.
Some police and firefighters are getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in pension payouts, draining the city's finances and helping to shrink the public-safety workforce. Pension benefits need to be tied to contributions.
State lawmakers moving to fix the nation's worst-funded pension system have a choice: a plan that saves a lot of money or one that might survive a court challenge.
California Department of Technology Starts July 1
Stephen Goldsmith
Charles Chieppo
John M. Kamensky
Neil Kleiman
Robert J. O'Neill Jr.
Feather O'Connor Houstoun
Susan K. Urahn
John M. Bernard
Babak Armajani
William D. Eggers
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