George Will?s latest Newsweek column focuses on the challenges Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa faces as his city veers toward bankruptcy. This is the same Villaraigosa who worked for 15 years as ?an organizer for the Service Employees International Union and the city?s teachers? union.?
Now he is trying to cope with, and partially undo, largesse for unionized public employees: “I have to sign the checks on the front, not just the back.”
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Nationwide, government employees are most of what remains of “defined benefit” America. More than 80 percent of government workers have defined benefits?as opposed to defined-contribution?pension plans. Only about 20 percent of private-sector workers have defined-benefit plans. California’s parlous condition owes much to burdensome health-care and pension promises negotiated with public employees’ unions, promises that are suffocating the state’s economic growth.
