Brown's pension plan provides some hope, but has critics

From the Contra Costa Times:

Gov. Jerry Brown’s new pension reform plan signals he’s serious about restoring fiscal sanity to public employee retirement systems, but it lacks critical details and doesn’t stop the transfer of hundreds of billions of dollars of debt to our children.

Let’s give Brown credit: He finally demonstrated understanding that “we’re not on a sustainable path” and that taxpayers need financial protection as well as workers. What he proposed Thursday provides a minimum starting point for discussion.

After he unveiled his plan, many focused on the changes affecting new employees: mixing conventional pensions with Social Security and 401(k)-style retirement savings to reduce taxpayer exposure to market volatility; targeting pension payments to a reasonable 75 percent of salary; increasing retirement ages; and reducing pension spiking.

All good, and essential, ideas. But changes for new employees won’t provide substantial financial relief for decades.