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San Jose Questioned Over Proposed Pension Reform Measure

SAN JOSE (KCBS) – The San Jose City Council was expected to declare a fiscal emergency Tuesday, but that was tabled after it was discovered last week that the city's budget deficit is a lot less than the projected $80 million.

Still, the council plans to go ahead with a pension reform ballot measure, which Assemblyman Paul Fong said the legislative council found unconstitutional.

KCBS' Mike Colgan Reports:

"It would impair the contractual rights of current city employees and retirees," said Fong. "And this impairment would violate the California, and United States Constitutions."

However, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed thinks the city is on firm legal ground.

"We are very carefully crafting it to avoid having to deal with some issues that could be problems," said Reed. "But we're also having to move straight forward ahead to deal with the fact that retirement costs have skyrocketed from $73 million ten years ago to $245 million today, and we're draining money from services as a result."

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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