A homeowner with a leaky roof may be better off than one whose kitchen is on fire. But he still has a serious problem.

That’s something public policymakers – and everyday citizens – may want to remember as they try to make sense of the emerging debate over pension reform in the state of Florida.

The AFL-CIO recently held a major press conference in Tallahassee designed to minimize the need for pension reform legislation. The union leaders argued – correctly – that Florida’s state pensions are in better shape than those in California, Illinois, New Jersey, and several other states in financial crisis.

But just because Florida’s state pension problems aren’t (yet) a three-alarm fire doesn’t mean that many cities in the Sunshine State can afford to ignore their extremely leaky roofs. Because a number of municipal pension plans in Florida are suffering from the very sorts of mismanagement that have plagued state plans elsewhere. And some city pensions are so seriously underfunded that they will go belly up unless public policymakers step in and take bold action.

According to economist Randall Holcombe of Florida State University, government pension programs get into financial trouble because politicians often make promises today that have to be paid for by taxpayers tomorrow.

“There is always a temptation on the part of government officials to promise increased compensation in the form of unfunded pension benefits, because by doing so they can push the present cost of government into the future,” Dr. Holcombe notes in a new report of The James Madison Institute. “Generous pension benefits promised a decade or more ago are now placing significant burdens on government budgets.”

Or, as they say in Marianna, the chickens are coming home to roost.

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The New York Post is reporting that unionized public employees were encouraged to slow the process of digging out of the recent snowstorm to demonstrate their labor leverage in hopes of grabbing more taxpayer largess.

Think that’s shocking? Just wait til taxpayers finally start paying attention to the power public employees have over local, state, and federal budgets. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown have already warned that 80 cents of every state dollar goes to public employee pay and benefits. Other states face similar figures. Shocking figures have shown public employee pensions twice as high in New York compared to their private-sector counterparts. Heck, even 60 Minutes is starting to take notice.

With all the political payoffs, scandals, and bailouts, the issue seems as mundane as the figures are mind-boggling, but the bill for lavish public employee pay is coming due in the form of a pension tsunami — or, if you prefer, a blizzard that will have union bosses calling for a bailout.

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That’s because when the entire country is hurting and the private sector continues to lose jobs, bureaucrats are being hired.

The following chart makes that case. Since the beginning of the recession (roughly January 2008), some 7.9 million jobs were lost in the private sector while 590,000 jobs were gained in the public one.  And since the passage of the stimulus bill (February 2009), over 2.6 million private jobs were lost, but the government workforce grew by 400,000.

Plus, as you know, according to the latest numbers from Bureau of Economic Analysis, the average federal civilian worker now earns double what private-sector workers earn when factoring in wages and benefits ($119,982 vs. $59,909). And the gap is increasing.  According to Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute, in 2000, the average federal worker earned 66 percent more in total compensation than the average private-sector worker. By 2008, that ratio had risen to 100 percent. That’s serious money.

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“…California remains one of the best places in the world to start a successful small business.  All you have to do is start with a successful large business”

US Rep. Tom McClintock; (R) Rocklin (CA)

This week, the ordinary American citizens known as Tea Party Patriots— the pesky nemesis of power-drunk, spendthrift politicians—have laid down a gauntlet, building on the momentum of the protests in towns all across America as well as the 1+ million Tea Partiers who took part in rallies across the country on September 12th.

Making the transition from single-event political protest rallies to a sustained political activism campaign, the Tea Party Patriots have filed an initiative to appear on the November 2010 ballot in California.  The initiative is the first official act within the true grass roots’ political activism platform we’ve titled “The Citizen Power Campaign”.

What is the first target the Tea Party Patriots’ ‘Citizen Power Campaign?’

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