Public-sector jobs used to pay less than privates under the assumption that public employees had job security.

However, the Chron article says public-sector pencil-pushers get 20% more than their private counterparts, not counting their huge healthcare/pension obligations that are slowly destroying city finances.

Until February 2009, anybody who worked for the city for five years or more got healthcare benefits for life on the public's dime.

Fiscal armageddon awaits us. But I know fiscal responsibility is not of much interst to the Bay Guardian.

All this talk of "unfunded pension liability" needs to really be put into perspective. Prior to the GASB 45 GUIDELINE (emphasis added) pensions were a pay as you go system, and were generally self sustaining and the term "Unfunded Liability" didn't really exist. Retirees, pre-GASB 45, would be paid their pension out of some of the money they had paid in to the plan over their career, but also were collecting an amount of what current employees were paying in (hence, self-sustaining). Think of it like a mortgage on a house. Today you buy a $500,000 house and pay monthly on it for 30 years until you own it.

Retirees, post-GASB 45, now are paid their pension out of some of the money they had paid in to the plan over their career, but also are collecting an amount of what current employees are paying in (so, technically still self-sustaining). The problem is that, most of the Public Sector Municipalities use Bonds to create cash flow now, that they then pay on over time. In order to get these bonds as cheap as possible, these municipalities need to have a high credit ranking. This is where the GASB 45 guideline is hurting ALL OF US. This GUIDELINE states (I'm paraphrasing here) the retirement fund of the municipality has to have the funding available, currently, to fund current and future liabilities or else the municipality will lose its high credit ranking thus causing Bonds to be WAY more expensive. So, again, think of buying a house for $500,000 with a 30 year mortgage. The only problem is that now with the GASB 45 guidelines in place, your mortgage company says to you that you need to prove to them that you can pay off the entire mortgage right now or else your low finance rate and great monthly price will go up drastically. If you don't have, currently, enough funding to pay off the house entirely, you will have to do some drastic budget realigning to be able to afford your monthly payments. The easiest way to save enough money to pay your mortgage every month is to lower the cost you pay to your personnel. One way of doing that is to have a two-tier retirement system that lowers what you have to pay to future employees of your business, but not current employees. Sounds good, right? Well, now, with that practice in place, the current employees aren't paying the same amount into the pension plan, thus reducing the funding of the pension plan, and it is a self-fulfilling prophecy that we now have the creation of "Unfunded Liabilities".

That is not good. We should not be trying to bring the ceiling down to the floor, we should try to raise ourselves up off the floor and get to where the ceiling is. Or another way of saying it is that all the talk about the Public Sector workers getting what we private sector workers don't have and that they should give up what they are getting so that they then get what we are getting is a way to say that you would rather be in a race to win the least amount of benefits for all, than in a race to get the best benefits for all.

Please, stop and think about it before you respond to this. Think about our economy currently vs. our economy of the past. Think about what racing to the bottom has done for us. We don't have the pride of craftsmanship we used to have, nor the respect that "Made in the U.S.A." labels used to carry. We are ok buying cheap, poorly made items from Wal-Mart because they are cheap, instead of puchasing something that will last, that may cost more, but wasn't made in China and was made by our USA Craftsmen and women. We have a problem here, and it isn't the Public Sector Unionocracy, nor is it the union worker, it is US (and I don't mean the United States). It is time we take some personal responsibility for what WE have done to ourselves. We have let ourselves be talked into the thought that cheaper, faster, disposable, is better, when in reality we all know it isn't. It is time for us to take pride in ourselves again, and to really make US (United States) what we have always been...THE BEST COUNTRY ON EARTH.

Not sure about the city, but I worked for the State before retiring and one of the main reasons the State had pensions was that it was cheaper than paying Social Security tax for State employees.

The pension plan is not like a 401K plan, it is in lieu of Social Security. State Employees lose Social Security benefits, even those of us who paid into Social Security for years before becoming State employees.

If we were in the Social Security system, we would have to pay 6% of our income to S.S. *AND* the State would be required by law to match that. Instead, we paid 6% into the CalPERS pension system and the amount the State had to pay varied by year. During boom years, the pension system was "superfunded," meaning the State contributed NOTHING.

State Employees went along because the benefit amount was larger than Social Security (though nowhere near the lies that we get our full salaries in retirement)--I get 24%--and we could retire earlier.

I have a feeling that if the State tried to eliminate pensions retroactively they would be required to pay back Social Security taxes, which would be billions of dollars.

"the city's librarians aren't running into burning buildings, or stopping terrorists."

Neither are cops or firemen for the most part, get a clue. Truck drivers have more dangerous jobs than cops or firemen, yet they're paid a fraction of what those leaches are.

Cops and firemen have a big scam going: they scare people into thinking that they'll die if the hero cops and firemen are not there to protect them, which is easy to do, especially in this country, then extort massive pay and benefits out of them. Because of modern fire codes and sprinkler systems, San Francisco has far more firemen than it actually needs. And you know what most cops are for? Protecting property and the people who own it, and by property I don't mean a house or a car. For example, when the first Iraq war started, an army of cops was dispatched to guard the Chevron building on Market Street (despite the fact that no one even hinted at a threat to that building or anyone in it). Any honest and competent criminologist will tell you that the only way to eliminate street crime is to eliminate poverty, unless you want cops everywhere (no thanks!).

So enough of this right wing crap about how great cops and firemen are. They are nothing but leaches in this city, sucking out huge amounts of money and giving little or nothing in return.