SF's Pension Reform Measure Draws Notice in DC

By: Elizabeth Lesly Stevens

Washington Post columnist Charles Lane posted a column yesterday about San Francisco's own Proposition B, which would require greatly increased pension and benefits contributions from city workers if it is passed in November.

Lane was bullish on the proposal, arguing that preserving government funds for public programs is the core of a progressive agenda. "Public-sector unions simultaneously bankroll the Democratic Party and bankrupt the government programs for which the Democratic Party stands," writes Lane, who describes San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, the chief proponent of Prop. B, as "a progressive political entrepreneur willing to make that argument explicitly in the very heart of Blue America."

Lane concludes by saying that Prop. B should be closely watched as a national bellwether: "Among all the other races in November, I'll be watching the fate of Proposition B closely. Whether it wins or loses, I don’t think we've heard the last of this issue, or of intra-Democratic arguments over the party’s Faustian bargain with public sector unions. How long, politically, can the party of government afford to be known as the party of government employees?"