Earlier this week we virtually attended a State Senate hearing about SB 868, a bill to provide a retroactive pension increase to some long-retired public employees. This isn’t the first time lawmakers have considered a retroactive increase. As I explained in a Wall Street Journal op-ed in 2010, the last retroactive pension increase was the largest issuance of debt in state history.
We stuck around for the entire five-hour hearing because some of the other measures were presented by interests similarly representing a small share of the state’s residents. Special interests will always press their cases. Defenders of the general interest must do the same. California became poorly governed not because special interests are so strong but because defenders of the general interest were so weak. GFC was launched 11 years ago to alter that balance of power. Today we are the largest bundler of direct political donations to legislators and a muscular presence in Sacramento. If you’ve got a better idea, do it. If not, join us.
