Former Assemblyman Keith Richman, who has long argued that the state employee pension system is costing taxpayers too much, is re-writing an initiative that would scale back pension benefits for new government employees.
Richman said he plans to make some minor changes and refile the initiative in the next couple of weeks. His California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility would then have to gather enough signatures by the end of April to qualify it for the November ballot.
Richman admitted that the timeline is tight, but said he will continue to pursue the initiative even if it doesn't qualify for November.
"We're in this for the long run," he said.
Among the changes Richman said he would make are allowing miscellaneous employees to retire with full benefits at the current age of 65, instead of tying it to Social Security eligibility, which can be as high as 67. He said he's also removing some provisions having to do with retiree health care.
But he said it will preserve the major components of the initiative his foundation filed in June. It would, for instance, slash the pension pay-out for new government employees who also qualified for Social Security from the current 2 percent of pay for each year worked to 1 percent.
Those who didn't qualify for Social Security would get 1.5 percent. Peace officers and firefighters would qualify for 2.2 percent of pay for each year worked at the age of 55. Under the current system, the state and many local governments pay public safety workers 3 percent at age 50.
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