Rose Fellow Douglas Johnson on Monrovia's Anti-Pension Initiative

An October 12th article at the Monrovia Patch quoted Rose Institute Fellow Douglas Johnson discussing a potential Monrovia ballot initiative which would abolish the city’s  property tax, which currently helps fund public employee pensions.Johnson tells the Patch that the proposed Monrovia initiative is “the first he’d heard of that tried to eliminate funding for pension costs via ballot measure.” Johnson discussed how the proposal would not do anything to reduce the city’s pension obligations. The proposal would make the City unable to pay its debts without doing anything to reduce those debts. “[T] his is more of an indirect approach [to eliminating pension funding]–you’re trying to cut off a revenue source…Obviously the issue of pensions and benefits for council members and staff is a hot issue up and down the state. … This is a unique approach to the widespread debate, and I’m sure lots of cities will be watching.”

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.