Compose a 1250 words assignment on california pension crisis: whos to blame. Needs to be plagiarism free! Several recent studies had estimated California’s unfunded pension debt at a staggering $500 billion and counting. The Sacramental Bee as late as November 10, 2010, quoting a Stanford study, put the debt for the states three pension systems at over $400 billion and local government pension systems at nearly $200 billion short. (Stanford Report says… par 1).

At the heart of the crisis is Legislatures 1999 decision to increase tax-guaranteed pensions for public safety workers and other public employees. Localities followed the state and gave nearly all public safety workers the right to retire at fifty, with ninety percent of their salaries. “The attitude was, Hey, we have a ton of money, let us give it away…’ There were a lot of deep thinkers there” (Saavedra and Joseph par 5). As is often the case, the state was in the economic“bubble” mindset of the rest of the country, and its behavior was very similar.

Calling for pension reform, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger described the crux of the problem, charging that the pension debt had been understated to taxpayers and that the underfunded programs were “…