Cities and States Need to Pay The Pensions Owed to Their Workers: These Institutions Borrowed Money From Pension Funds to Balance Their Budgets But Never Made Good on IOUs

Across the country, many levels of government engaged in the practice of raiding pension funds to balance their budgets.  California was particularly bad at this: they borrowed $550 billion from their state pension funds to balance their state budget.   And they’ve still got a $25 billion deficit in their 2010-2011 budget.

Those IOUs are coming due, with the retirement of many of the workers whose pensions have been looted by the various governments.

If they promised a pension to their workers, they ought to make sure the things are funded properly.