Were these people who retired around the turn of the century? Republicans back then wanted to downsize state government so they started selling retirement credits at a huge discount so employees would leave early. That's where the stories about state employees mortgaging their homes to buy retirement credit came from. At that time, you did have people retiring at 55 and even 50 with a 100% retirement benefit. The result was PERA went from just over 100% funded to around 80%. Then the recession hit and it was a body blow for the system. Employees are no longer able to do that.

You also ask about "government employees with their overly generous salaries and benefits." How do you define overly generous? I can tell you that most of the salaries offered by the state are below what the private sector pays for equivalent positions, especially skilled jobs like accountants and engineers. The Feds do offer much more generous salaries but this is about the State.