A growing number of California voters favor reducing the costs of public sector pensions, according to a new Field poll.
In the poll, 73 percent of respondents favored a proposal by California's Little Hoover Commission to place a limit on the final salary that is used to calculate a retiring public employee's pension in order to cap the cost of pensions. And 69 percent favor requiring public employees to contribute more of their own salaries toward retirement, while 60 percent of those polled favored raising the retirement age for public workers. The poll also found that California voters by a narrow margin oppose taking collective bargaining rights away from the state's public employees.
Behind these responses, the poll found, is a growing sense that the state's pensions are too costly. "Two years ago, by a margin of four to three, more voters believed that the level of pension benefits that most public workers received was acceptable. Now, by a margin of four to three, voters view these benefits as being too generous," the pollsters observed.
In the poll, 73 percent of respondents favored a proposal by California's Little Hoover Commission to place a limit on the final salary that is used to calculate a retiring public employee's pension in order to cap the cost of pensions. And 69 percent favor requiring public employees to contribute more of their own salaries toward retirement, while 60 percent of those polled favored raising the retirement age for public workers. The poll also found that California voters by a narrow margin oppose taking collective bargaining rights away from the state's public employees.
Behind these responses, the poll found, is a growing sense that the state's pensions are too costly. "Two years ago, by a margin of four to three, more voters believed that the level of pension benefits that most public workers received was acceptable. Now, by a margin of four to three, voters view these benefits as being too generous," the pollsters observed.
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