Are Government Pension Plans Unsustainable?

The call for action is growing louder, but there's still a debate about how to proceed with reforming local pension systems.

There was a packed house Tuesday evening at the Jewish Community Center in San Rafael, where the Marin County Board of Supervisors hosted an informational workshop about pension reform for public employees.

Larkspur City Councilman Larry Chu, one of the night's guest speakers, reiterated his warning that cities and the state simply can't afford to continue to offer the benefits under the current pension plans, the Marin Independent Journal reported.

"If you go back to 1999 that was a delineating point when legislation was passed by the California Assembly that lowered the retirement age of public employees to 50 years old and also provided those benefits to other existing employees retroactively," Chu said in an earlier address. "What it effectively did was to take a lot oft he gains that had been made when the stock markets had been doing well and took it to the point where there were inadequate supplies and reserves to meet the times when the pension systems were not generating what they needed to."

Chu has suggested that local and state governments must reduce costs and potential risks in order to avoid potential economic disaster. He has called for government agencies and unions to work together to find a viable middle ground.