Did I just hear on Bloomberg that if the city's pension fund loses money, taxpayers pay for that loss? William Thompson, the controller of NYC, just said that. So basically if they screw up, they still need to make sure the pension fund grows, so the money is going to come from taxpayers??? Wow.... I didn't know that. Does this happen in every major city in our country???
It could. The really big danger is that city workers in every major city will continue to want huge salary and benefit increases all at the same time and thereby bankrupt the rest of the population with additional tax increases.
Generally, the public sector takes very, very good care of themselves, they make the laws and collect the taxes after all. In California they get paid 50% more overall compensation than the private sector, largely it's in the benefits department. The retirements are usually quite good. Los Angeles County workers that were on the good plan in the old days got great benefits long after they were retired, it cut into the county services big time but I never heard any of them complaining......