Letter: Supervisor's figures just don’t add up

Supervisor Whiteaker justifies his decision to grant generous pension benefits to county workers by pointing to the fact that pension funds are 88 percent funded (“Sutter County finances in good shape,” Dec. 27). What he doesn’t say is that the county and its miscellaneous workers pay 23 percent of salary for pensions on top of Social Security.

He also doesn’t mention that the funding level reflects stock market returns have been in the double digits for the last three years, but doesn’t reflect returns that have been very weak in the last few months. If the stock continues to perform poorly, funding levels will decline.

A worker who retires at 55 after working 30 years receives a pension of over 80 percent of final salary (plus COLAs), and will receive another 30 percent of final salary from Social Security. Supervisor Whiteaker should not justify the cost and benefits by pointing to a funding level that fluctuates depending upon market returns that are beyond his control.

And to say the county is better off with less experienced, lower paid workers to replace more experienced, higher paid workers is crazy. Workers should be paid based on performance, regardless of age.

Marcia Fritz

Citrus Heights

Editor’s note: The author is vice president of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, a pension reform group.