Editorial: Lawmakers ready to make pension crisis even worse

In the late 1990s, California's pension systems were flush with cash as the stock market boomed. Instead of charting a sustainable path forward, lawmakers - on a bipartisan basis - caved to the demands of the state's public-safety unions and dramatically increased pensions for California Highway Patrol officers. They retroactively granted the "3% at 50" retirement formula, which allowed officers to retire with 90% of their final year's pay as early as age 50. It amounted to a 50% increase for many officers. As planned, firefighters and other safety employees then secured the same benefit. Non-safety employees also used Senate...