An initiative that would cut California’s public pension benefits may get tangled up in court instead of finding its way onto the November election ballot.
The statewide measure, championed by San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, would amend California’s state Constitution to allow pension benefits for current workers to be altered. The measure has enraged public workers and their unions, who negotiate such contracts in good faith and often give up other forms of compensation in order to secure a decent retirement.
Although the measure qualified for the ballot, Reed and other proponents don’t like the way it will be described in the ballot pamphlet that explains ballot measures to the voters. Writing the title and summary language is the job of Attorney General Kamala Harris. She writes that the measure “eliminates constitutional protections for vested pension and retiree healthcare benefits for current public employees, including teachers, nurses, and peace officers, for future work performed.”
Attorney General Kamala Harris meets with IBEW 1245 members as part of the union’s leadership development program.
Reed and his allies say they will sue Harris over the wording. A lawsuit could come as early as this week, according to Dave Low, a spokesman for Reed.
Harris’s office insists that the wording of the title and summary is accurate, and that the Attorney General will “stand by it.”
Reed now concedes that the lawsuit makes a campaign for the ballot initiative unlikely for this November’s statewide votes, but he hopes to resurrect the issue for the 2016 elections.
Attorney General Harris is no stranger to IBEW 1245. Last year on April 8 she took time to meet with 11 young members of IBEW 1245 to discuss leadership. Organizing Steward Donchele Soper was impressed with what she heard.
“Attorney General Kamala Harris stood up to the big banks and other politicians, and didn’t buy into the excuses the rich or those in power have sold for decades. She asked questions, demanded answers and refused to give up,” Soper said at the time.