Looks like the fate of the proposed initiative to scrap the city of Tucson’s pension system and replace it with a 401(k)-style retirement plan remains up in the air.
Pima County Superior Court Judge James E. Marner ruled this morning that thousands of signatures must be tossed from the petitions, but the exact number remains unclear. Once those signatures have been stripped from the initiative, a new random batch of signatures will be sent to the Pima County Recorder’s Office to determine the accuracy rate and then the Tucson City Clerk’s Office will have to calculate whether there are enough to put the proposition before Tucson voters this November.
Attorney Jeff Rogers, former chairman of the Pima County Democratic Party, tells The Range via email that the next steps are “complicated. Lots of signatures thrown out and back to square one for the City Clerk’s Office.”
We’ll have more reaction as we get it and more details in this week’s print edition. In the meantime, here’s Marner’s ruling, if you want to have your attorneys look it over: RULING_Parker_v._COT__C20134029.pdf
UPDATED: Lisa Hauser, attorney for the Committee for Sustainable Retirement, sends along this statement on Judge Marner’s ruling:
It appears that the number of signatures disqualified by the Court will fall short of what the Plaintiffs needed to remove the initiative from the ballot—even if a new random sample is conducted. We are pleased that most of Plaintiffs allegations about unqualified circulators were rejected by the Court. Even so, it also appears that some of the findings made against the Committee were erroneous and that the number of disqualified signatures should be much lower. We are discussing our options with counsel.
This article appears in Aug 15-21, 2013.
This is another proposal to give away our retirement plans to Wall Street, where they can gamble with our money. It is an insidious effort to undermine current retirees security, under the lie that it “only applies to new employees.” The fact is, the new employees help to sustain the current retirees, just as I paid to sustain them during my working years. The “privatize everything” philospohy is a false, cynical and immoral strategy to further eliminate the middle class and turn us into a nation of serfs.
There are big money interests pushing this one. We can be sure that Wall Street will look after the pensioners before their own interests, yeah right.
And why is it that you (the city worker) deserves a guaranteed paycheck for the rest of your life that is not effected by the same economic rules as mine (401k)? If you want a pension then it should be directly tied to the health of the city budget, when the city falls behind and can’t pay its bills then you should be the first to take a cut in your payment. Wall Street may not look so bad now, huh…
aofog:
Why are you taking the side of those who play you like a yo-yo with your phony 401k (at the mercy of the Big Casino on Wall Street) instead of joining your brothers and sisters of your OWN Class who are fighting for something better from the greedy Class?
It’s amazing and baffling to see so many people so ready to work against their own best interests and support their lying, cheating oppressors!