PERS has been reformed (benefits reduced) over 20 times since 1995. Meanwhile, corporations have one of the lowest overall tax burdens in the entire country. But a minority of legislators have the power to block any effort at correcting that. That is a problem.

We also have a problem modernizing and stabilizing and bringing rational order and processes to budgeting and spending. Measure 5 threw a wrench into the machinery that is still throwing things out of gear. Do we really want the mashup of hundreds of local school districts making consequential financial decisions that could be made much more efficiently at a state level? If there is a problem with PERS, it is not that we have not pillaged the retirements of workers enough but rather that we have not brought the system of negotiating salaries and benefits--compensation as a whole--under rational control with clear lines of responsibility. There is a problem when employers cannot negotiate well, plan, and keep contracts.