The State Worker

Are state workers dragging down state budgets around the nation? Or have public employees and their compensation packages become convenient political scapegoats?

A year ago the PBS news show "Need to Know" took on what it calls "one of the most contentious arguments in the news today." We ran across the report this morning while surveying state worker news. Although the item ran on March 11, 2011, the topic remains relevant today.

Watch Union Salaries and State Budgets on PBS. See more from Need to Know.

Although Gov. Jerry Brown's public pension reform plan is still in the formative stages, it's become the reference point in the debate about government retirement. For example, the public pension study released by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research specifically addresses the Brown plan. Pollsters have also surveyed public opinion on the governor's pension ideas.

So what do you think? What's next for Brown's pension plan?

It seems like everybody is talking about public pensions.

Gov. Jerry Brown has a 12-point plan he wants to put before voters next year. Republicans applaud the governor for offering up the proposals and have challenged him to call a special session to address the issue. Democrats are wary of Brown's plan.

Meanwhile, California Pension Reform has filed two pension proposals with the attorney general for title and summary, aiming to put one of them on the November 2012 ballot. Labor insists that any pension downgrades should be negotiated, not just legislated.

So what do you think?

Editor's note, 11:33 a.m.: Due to incorrect information provided by California Pension Reform, an earlier version of this post indicated that full-career public safety workers would receive their full benefit at age 60 after 30 years of service under a defined contribution plan. The correct age is 58 for those workers.

California's current and future state and local employees would pay more for their pensions under two ballot initiative proposals submitted to the state attorney general today with the intent of putting one of them to a statewide vote next year.

"Seventy percent of voters think it's time," said Dan Pellissier, president of California Pension Reform, referring to public opinion polls on public pensions.

Blog User E flagged an interesting Twitter tête à tête between Democrat Sen. Ted Lieu and Steve Maviglio, who often speaks for the public employee coalition Californians for Retirement Security.

Lieu tweeted on Friday that lawmakers need to do more about changing pensions or public employees will face even harsher measures via a statewide ballot initiative.

Maviglio responded that the public "(rightly) cares about spiking, abuse, high $" pensions and that unions support laws to tamp that down. But going further would be an "attack on middle class, cops, teachers, firefighters that voters won't support."

Click here to see the Tweet-off.

PHOTOS: Steve Maviglio (top) and Ted Lieu / Sacramento Bee file photos.

The public's dissatisfaction isn't reserved for the public sector.

A survey released Tuesday found that 40 percent of Americans polled assigned a grade of "D" or "F" to corporate America for its performance in 2010, while 82 percent gave business a grade of "C" or lower.

Meanwhile, only 17 percent gave corporate America an "A" or a "B" for their performance in the past year.

The findings from a recent online survey of 1,081 Americans, conducted by the StrategyOne research arm of the global PR firm Daniel J. Edelman, show that corporations failed the expectations of 61 percent of Americans. Only 5 percent said that businesses exceeded their expectations.

Researchers found that Americans think corporate America's highest priorities next year should be helping to improve the economy, reducing unemployment, promoting ethical corporate behavior, paying back federal bailout money, making raising service standards, making quality products that require fewer recalls and making fewer mistakes overall.

We asked Bradley Honan, senior vice president of StrategyOne, to send more results than those contained in the press release. Here's what he e-mailed (fair warning -- it's a long list):