Deals So Sweet They'll Kill Us

You should become a cop.

Ticked off about your company yanking healthcare benefits in retirement?

Get a teaching job.

If you hadn't already noticed, while the rest of us watch our retirement benefits shrivel up and blow away, public sector retirement deals are sweeter than ever. And we're footing the bill.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to sound an alert last year. But the big gorilla killed any chance for a serious discussion by bullying cops, teachers and firefighters, making them out to be the bad guys.

Now there's even less of a chance for honest leadership, because it's an election year -- a time when no politician dares speak the truth, especially if it means risking donations from public employee unions. Meanwhile, evidence is mounting across the state that we're headed for disaster as the bills come due on all the Cadillac retirement plans out there.

Take the Los Angeles Unified School District, where teachers can walk away in their 50s with lifetime medical insurance for themselves.

And their spouses.

And their sons and daughters, up to their 26th birthday if they're in college.

Are they kidding?

Look, I don't want teachers, cops or any other public employees to starve in retirement or die from medical neglect, and I know teachers have historically traded pay hikes for full benefits. But this is ridiculous, and it ain't cheap either.

The state legislative analyst's office puts the tab for LAUSD's unfunded retiree healthcare costs at $5 billion over the next 30 years. That's $5 billion that's now entirely unbudgeted. The district would have to come up with $500 million a year to fill that hole.

And that's the rosy scenario.

The $5-billion estimate could grow to $11 billion, depending on investment returns and other factors.

"It's a time bomb, ticking," said LAUSD chief Roy Romer, who fears having to shortchange kids to cover the debt.

So how did we create problems like this in Los Angeles and across California?

It's all pretty simple.

Hordes of Democratic politicians and a few oddball Republicans from Sacramento to San Diego have won election and reelection by saying yes, yes, yes to every demand from the public employee unions.

The unions, just like corporate donors, pony up millions to have their way. And if they're not still sending thank you cards to former Gov. Gray Davis every day of the year, they should be ashamed of themselves.