Public sector workers who attended a taxpayers' association meeting in Stockton last week were complaining about the terrible "cuts" they have to endure because of the city's ongoing bankruptcy, but union leaders and members take no responsibility for the rapid increase in benefits that helped lead to the dire fiscal situation. The Howard Jarvis group announced a new study authored by Pepperdine's Steve Frates that got to the root of the problem: "Total expenditures by the state government of California to finance salaries and pension benefits for state government employees increased almost three times as fast (29 percent) as the per capita personal income of all Californians (9.8 percent) from 2005-10." The amount increased by 94 percent for public safety employees. As I wrote in my column, Where is the world's smallest violin?
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