Newport Beach has a problem.
(Those envious of the beautiful area insistent on calling it New Porsche Beach.)
It seems that four of their Lifeguards are making more than just change above $100,000 a year, with commissariat pensions, so there is a move to try to get this insanity under control according to Bloomberg News.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-15/california-beach-town-may-privatize-100-000-lifeguards.html
Now Lifeguards are not the only ones whose pensions are causing Newport Beach gas pains — but the overall burden for that city in pensions is at 14% of the General Fund, and rising.
“The escalating cost of pensions, especially public-safety pensions — of which lifeguards are part — is putting more pressure on cities,” Coleman (fiscal adviser to the League of California Cities) said by telephone. “If this continues, we’re going to see more and more cities outsourcing these functions.”
CalPers, the State retirement plan reported investment gains of almost 17% recently after many years of under-performance, and certainly the rising property values and lowering unemployment rates will help, but the over-inflated salaries and pensions will drag many other communities first to outsource and then to seek protection from the Courts.
Newport Beach has 357 employees who made more than $100,000 in 2012 out of their total of 1,234 employees, and that City has the highest unfunded liability of the 34 commu8nities in Orange County.
Of course, many of the politicians who granted those excessive salaries will never be held responsible.
No one is EVER to blame.
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