Brown's pension plan gets good marks, but...

Adjusting the benefits for future state and local workers is fine (whenever they resume hiring state and local workers), but making any real traction in the public pension nightmare would require current employees to pay more toward their retirement plans, and that could be a a "legal and collective bargaining minefield," according to the Legislative Analyst's Office's preliminary review of the governor's plan. From the report:

Our reading of California's pension case law is that it will be very difficult - perhaps impossible - for the Legislature, local governments, or voters to mandate such changes for many current public workers and retirees. Moreover, employer savings from these changes likely will be offset to some extent by higher salaries or other benefits for affected workers. Given all of these challenges, we advise the Legislature to focus primarily on changes to future workers' benefits. Such changes should produce net taxpayer savings only over the long run but are certain to be legally viable.

Earlier this year, the Little Hoover Commission went even further than Brown by proposing that the benefits of current workers be frozen and then reduced. Like it or not, that's really the answer, but the politics would be almost impossible - barring economic calamity or some sort of judicial intervention. On the plus side, the LAO report views Brown's proposal "as a bold starting point for legislative deliberations."