[34679]

Oregon's budget for retired state employees: $100 Billion

I tried to find the same for California, but it seems they do a better job of hiding it.

My point is that we are spending a tremendous amount of money on former government employees, so they can have nice homes, good healthcare, and a quality education for their children. But in the process, we're neglecting a large portion of the population that those people were supposed to be serving.

[mattkrause]

What would you do instead?

It takes good, motivated staff to run an effective government department. Those same people have a lot of options, so the government has to compete for them somehow.

We’re unwilling to pay them high salaries (take a look at the federal pay scales: GS-12, which is usually a scientist with a grad degree, starts at $66k). Benefits seem a little more politically palatable, so the government competes on those instead: we won’t pay you a lot, but you can earn a (slightly) better retirement instead.

Without either, who’s going to work for the government? Do you really want a government full of people who can’t land any other job?

[34679]

What would I do? Reduce the number of state employees. And I'd do it without firing anyone. See: Gary Johnson, New Mexico.

When an existing employee retires or otherwise ends their employment with the state, don't hire a replacement unless that job is critical to the operation of the government.

[pjc50]

That's obviously not the correct number; perhaps that's the total liability for all future pensions?

It's not clear what the actual pensions number is, but the total budget for absolutely everything for the two years 2019-21 for Oregon appears to be $82bn from Schedule VI of https://www.oregon.gov/das/Financial/Documents/2019-21_gb.pd...

[jandrese]

If I'm looking for money to help the poor I'm not going to start by raiding pensions. That would be self destructive.

[mnm1]

Yes, how terrible that we are fulfilling our contractual obligations to people who have worked for decades in our government. It's a travesty indeed! Should we just exterminate them in camps now that they are of no use to us? Or what would you propose?