Feds should butt out of California pension reform: Editorial
The Obama administration should stop trying to undermine
California’s public employee pension changes.  U.S. Labor
Secretary Thomas Perez’s abhorrent overreach into state affairs
and misapplication of federal transportation law would undermine
Gov. Jerry Brown’s retirement reform efforts, would harm
taxpayers and, ironically, the very workers he seeks to protect.
Pension costs are strangling local governments, sucking away
funds needed to employ workers. Absent reasonable cost controls,
more public workers will lose their jobs.  If anything, the
retirement law Brown signed a year ago does not go nearly far
enough to control rising costs. It’s a foundation upon which
more change must be built. However, Perez apparently wants to
bring down the entire structure.  The labor secretary relies on
a law Congress passed in 1964 to ensure public transit agencies
didn’t bust unions as they acquired financially troubled private
transportation companies. To th