The long awaited pension reform proposal from the lone Democrat in the San Diego Mayor’s race has finally arrived

As I noted last Friday, mayoral candidate Bob Filner wasn’t doing San Diego any favors by not officially releasing his alternative to the Comprehensive Pension Reform (Prop B) promoted so heavily by Carl DeMaio and the other Republican challengers in the mayor’s race.  Prop B is the plan that would switch San Diego’s public employees’ pension plan to a 401k style investment account.  It’s a plan that saves the city no money on the switch itself, but instead claims to save $763 million over the next 30 years,  entirely through the legally dubious pay freeze on public employee salaries.

Well, the Filner campaign finally got the message, and today they released the details of his alternative in its entirety.  As he discussed in a lengthy interview with myself and Annie Lane of the OB Rag, the plan calls for the refinancing of the pension debt, saving the city over $500 million over 10 years; negotiating a new five year labor agreement with labor unions that will freeze pensionable salaries for the next two years, and capping pay increases by no more than 2% over the following three years; and capping pension payments at $99,999, eliminating the much maligned six figure pension payouts that have become a political football by candidates on the right  of the political spectrum.

All told, Filner says his plan will save the city $753 million over the next 15 years, achieving similar savings to Prop B but in half the time.

DDF= DeMaio, Dumanis, Fletcher Plan. Source: BobFilnerforMayor.com

Source: BobFilnerforMayor.com

See the entire proposal here.

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Andy Cohen

Andy spent 15 years working in the highest levels of the San Diego professional sports world, including both the Padres and the Chargers. He began his foray into writing while a volunteer for Francine Busby's 2010 Congressional campaign, eventually becoming a contributor to the now defunct SDNN. He has reported on local and national politics for both the OB Rag and the San Diego Free Press. When not reporting news and events, he offers political and policy commentary from a liberal perspective, occasionally turning back to his sports roots.

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