Megan McArdle points out another key difference between “ordinary” pensions and US state government pensions:
Public employees rack up overtime in their last year of work, with the active encouragement of their supervisors and even local politicians, then they retire with inflated pensions that can be greater than their base salary.
New York is the understandable focus, but these problems are hardly unique to my home state. In fact, New York is among the better states on funding of pensions, because they actually have to do some. Other states kinda sorta haven’t really bothered — at least not at anywhere near the levels that would be needed. New York’s problem is notable only because its public sector unions are unusually powerful.
The problem is that these things are nearly impossible to change. People have worked for twenty years or more under the expectation of pensions that were calculated this way; you can’t just wait until they’re 58 and say “Ha, ha, just foolin’.”
<sarcasm>Of course, the money will always be there, right? No reason for anyone to change their expectations.</sarcasm>
