The mayor of California's third largest city offered a plan yesterday to help the state rein in spending on public pensions, drawing rebukes from a group representing public employees as well as the state's pension fund for public-sector workers, Reuters reported yesterday. San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said that his measure, which he hopes to qualify for the November 2014 ballot, would urge voters to amend California's constitution to allow local governments to reduce pension expenses associated with their current employees. Local governments in the most populous U.S. state may reduce pension benefits for their future workers to lower retirement-related spending but they face legal roadblocks in doing the same for current employees. Reed, a Democrat, has emerged as a high-profile advocate for pension reform in California after successfully winning a measure in his city last year that garnered national attention. That measure allows San Jose's workers to keep pension benefits they have earned but requires them to pay more toward their pensions to keep up the same level of benefits. If San Jose's employees do not pay more, future pension benefits are reduced, a plan they are challenging in state court.
