Union calling on Riverside County leaders to reconsider pension cuts

Riverside County employees have renewed their call for leaders to reconsider their pensions reform plan. The county is trying to close an $80 million budget gap.

Earlier this year county supervisors proposed cutting pension benefits for new employees from 3 to 2-percent of their salary for each year of service. Newly hired public safety workers — scheduled to retire at age 55 — would also have their pensions dialed down to the same rate. County labor unions say workers have already given up enough through pay cuts, furloughs and reduced health care benefits.

“August 2009, the county began the 11 months of imposed furloughs and in the end my income was reduced by over $5,000. That is 10 percent of my income," said Angela De Bello-Herrera, who is with the county’s Department of Public Social Services. She told supervisors she is her family’s sole bread winner.

"How am I supposed to support my family and how can this be allowed to happen to some of the most devoted employees you have? The ones that make the least amount of money but that work the hardest," she said.

Supervisor Bob Buster says at its current rate the county’s annual pension costs could mushroom to $300 million by the end of the decade. He says the union’s counter offer of roughly 2.5 percent still costs too much. Riverside County supervisors are expected to resume pension reform discussions in two weeks.