Osg1 20120729 PENSIONS

The Osgood File. Sponsored by Angie's List. Get reviews you can trust and great discounts from service providers right in your own area. Coming up, a special offer just for you. This is Dave Ross, in for Charles Osgood. 
Once upon a time, pensions were considered untouchable.
But economic reality is changing that - as you'll hear after this from Charlie...
((( BREAK )))
In California, four million people are enrolled in the state retirement system, and one million are getting benefits.
And those benefits tend to start early: average retirement age for a firefighter in California is 60 - for a local cop, 55 - for a highway patrol officer, 53.
Once upon a time, a booming stock market might have paid for all that leisure - but now, the bill is falling to people like Sacramento police officer Jennifer Bland - who paid with her job.
SOT - Jennifer Bland
"Good Lord, how am I going to pay - how am I going to feed my kids?" (:
When Sacramento gave its police union the choice of paying a bigger share of pension costs or cut jobs, it opted to cut jobs. 
Jennifer and 15 other officers were laid off.
SOT - Jennifer Bland
And when you take that oath, that's the proudest moment. And then when it's taken away from you ... just because they can't make ends meet?" (:
Sacramento's firefighters had to make a similar choice.
SOT - Todd Filbrun
"I'm trying to make a mortgage, put my wife through law school and pay the everyday bills. I could be without a job. I could be losing my home " (:
But firefighters - like Todd Filbrun - chose to accept pension reforms in exchange for saving 44 jobs.
SOT - Todd Filbrun
"It was a very tough decision. They wanted to do the right thing - but yet at the same time, it was coming at a great personal cost." (:

With the reforms, firefighters in Sacramento end up paying a 9% employe contribution toward their pension plan, while the police will continue to get their pension plan without paying anything, now that Officer Jennifer Bland and fifteen officers – have turned in the badges.

SOT - Jennifer Bland
"I really felt a call to help people." (:
The Osgood File. Dave Ross on the CBS Radio Network.