California Conservative

The Sacramento Bee reports: “The leadership of the influential $126 billion state teachers’ retirement board took another blow Wednesday with the ouster of a fifth trustee.

An already short-handed governing board of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System dwindled to seven trustees after the Senate Rules Committee rejected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s remaining nominee, Kathleen Smalley.”

“The Democrats … wanted to send a message. She’s victim of politics,” said Senator Jim Battin (R) of Palm Desert. “She deserved to be confirmed.”

Of course, we’re talking about California politics - and deserving isn’t necessarily a qualification. Here’s the beef:

Schwarzenegger removed four appointees shortly after they took a stand against his efforts to scrap the state’s guaranteed pension program for future teachers and public employees in favor of 401(k)-style private investment accounts.

Trustees said the governor’s proposal would threaten the financial security of the fund and its members. Administration officials defended the removal, saying the four weren’t suited to implement the governor’s agenda to overhaul the pension program.

But labor and teachers unions cried foul and lobbied strongly against Smalley.

Once again, I believe this represents a clear example of special interests and their elected officials mobilizing to block the efforts of real reform.

Gov. Schwarzenegger was voted into office on expectations that he would improve California’s financial stability, which includes overhauling the troubled pension program.

If the Democratic opposition has better solutions, why didn’t they already implement them while Gray Davis was at the helm?

RELATED: A “Battle over union dues” - The SacBee also reports: “A pro-business group whose leader is closely connected to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is funding the signature-gathering effort to make it tougher for public employee unions to spend their members’ dues money on political campaigns.”

While already spearheading a series of other reforms, The Governator is not officially participating in this fight. According to Schwarzenegger spokesman Rob Stutzman, the initiative is “not part of the reform package the governor has put forward.” However:

“At some point down the road, it may make sense for Schwarzenegger to publicly support paycheck protection,” says
Republican political consultant Dan Schnur. “But for the time being, letting his allies in the small-business community take the lead is a smart way to move forward.”

Indeed.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 7th, 2005 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Arnold, California, Sacramento. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.