Mayor Villaraigosa pays off the Union Bosses

Overall, these expense reductions of $250 to $500 million will be felt by the beleaguered City employees who will be either furloughed or laid off, and by long suffering Angelenos who will have to live with rapidly deteriorating roads and fewer services.

And once again, this “solution” is just more of the same old stuff, another one off gimmick that does not address the City’s Structural Deficit caused by out of control increases in salaries, pension contributions, and medical benefits. These personnel costs are projected to increase by $226 million next year and almost $740 million over the next four years.

Over the last six years, the super secretive Executive Employee Relations Committee (the “EERC”), under the fiscally irresponsible leadership of Mayor Villaraigosa and City Council President Eric Garcetti, has given away the store to the campaign funding union bosses.

In this six year period alone, the average compensation for members of the City’s two pension plans has increased by over 24% to almost $82,000 a year. And the police and fire fighters are now taking home an average of over $100,000 a year, and that is before very generous benefits.

And during the reign of Villaraigosa and Garcetti on the EERC, pension contributions have increased by over 150% and now chew up over 20% of the General Fund while human resource benefits are up 47% and comprise almost 13% of the General Fund.

On another note, pension tsunami has a report that puts Fresno County second to Sonoma County in underfunded pensions. Give us a little time in Fresno, we will go belly up.