Econ 101 pretty much tells us that long term, in order to keep talent, if critical government jobs cut benefit plans, they’d have to raise salaries, basically making it a wash in terms of taxpayer benefit. I personally know several people who work for the State for wages lower than they could take elsewhere specifically because of the benefits.
There’s room for reform, and the Brown plan seems fairly reasonable. My understanding is a lot of new hires don’t enjoy nearly the same luxurious benefits some of the old timers qualified for, benefits that it would be illegal to strip now and the state pretty much just has to wait out and let those folks die. But reforming the public sector unions is not a silver bullet to California’s revenue problems. Prison reform would probably have a bigger, longer lasting effect.
