> We should pay them every dollar we owe them. It isn't their problem if they paid in every year and the government did not meet its obligations. It's a lot mo

> We should pay them every dollar we owe them. It isn't their problem if they paid in every year and the government did not meet its obligations. It's a lot more complicated than that. School districts can unilaterally give raises to teachers, which increases the tax-payer's burden via additional pension obligations when that teacher retires. The most egregious form this takes are large raises in the few years before someone retires to "supercharge" their pension. Should the tax-payers be on the hook for obligations that were unilaterally created by local school districts? If a school board creates a new assistant/associate/full superintendent/principal position and elevates an existing teacher to that position, they've just added hundreds of thousands of dollars to the tax-payer's bill in the form of additional pension obligations with no approval whatsoever. People on public pension systems are owed a fair deal that gives them a secure retirement. Obviously at a minimum they should receive what they paid in, compounded yearly at 6.7% (adjusted for inflation). But they're also going to have to bit the bullet for the greater good, just as I'm going to have to do when I lose at least 25% of social security when I retire. We've got a fixed pie of blood and treasure and we owe it to all people to spend that pie wisely, even if it means adjusting pensions.