Taking on Pension Reform

Reducing the cost of pensions to the City is an essential component to achieving true structural reform and long-term budget health. The current system is unsustainable and threatens to overwhelm our City's ability to provide the highest level of police, fire, library, parks, roads and other critical services. This cost-crisis is becoming especially acute as baby boomers retire en masse.

I have crafted and introduced in Council a plan that would fundamentally reform the city's pension system to save millions of dollars. My plan changes the way a pension is calculated to stop pension “spiking” and “double-dipping” while requiring employees, for the first time, to contribute to the cost of their lifetime health care benefits. Enacting these reforms could face an uphill battle, but the bottom line is that the status quo is unacceptable and threatens the core services that City Hall exists to provide. Let me know what you think about pension reform at councilmember.garcetti@lacity.org or go to our Speak Out LA blog to leave a comment.