Reform … or else

On June 5, voters in San Jose and San Diego weighed in on the issue of pension reform, overwhelmingly approving ballot measures that roll back benefits for current and future city workers. Democratic lawmakers here in Sacramento should take heed.

Nobody begrudges government employees’ reasonable pensions, and the average government worker’s retirement benefit is only about $25,000 annually. But it’s also clear that many local governments have indeed provided overly generous pensions. There are plenty of cases—in the local school district, city and country government—where certain workers walk away from jobs with royalty-class retirement pensions.

Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed a modest pension-reform package but has been unable to get it past Democrats in the Legislature. But it’s be better to move forward on moderate pension reform than risk a ballot measure that could be much worse. Right?