the 2018 ELECTION
THE 2018 ELECTION IN ARIZONA
VOTE NO ON ARIZONA PROPOSITION 125
As they have done in some other states, Arizona's Republican majority legislature is trying to cheat state employees out of part of their retirement pensions. It is an absolutely wrong thing to do.
Fortunately, the AZ Constitution is quite clear about this. It says: Public retirement system benefits shall not be diminished or impaired.
Unfortunately, Proposition 125 is an attempt to weaken that constitutional protection.
A the terms of a pension are a promise to a employees who spend their career in a public service job that they will have certain benefits when they retire, and to break that promise is unacceptable.
Republicans attempting to do this bring no surprise. The Democrats who agreed to it should be ashamed of themselves. The targeted pensions this time are the Correctional Officers and the Elected Officials retirement pensions.
Correctional Officers have a difficult and stressful job, and one in which it is very important that they have the temperment and experience to handle a prisoner population with a balance of firmness and fairness. They can make the difference in the outcome when the inmates have served their time.
A good pension is incentive for officers to stay on the job, gaining experience and reducing costly turnover, despite lower pay than most other law enforcement fields.
Regardless of whether one approves of a given set of public employees, like elected officials, the principle is the same-- the government, the people of Arizona, should keep its promises to them.
What are the excuses for this attempt to cheat retirees? UNDERFUNDED pensions. There can be only two reasons for that: the government failed to pay enough into them, or used the funds for something else. In other words, the government has been caught with its hand in the till, but instead of raising the revenue and restoring the funds, they contrive to reduce what was promised to workers who earned those pensions.
Say NO! Keep them honest; make them fulfil the promises that were made.