There been a steady drumbeat underway now about the precarious situation facing public pensions (we’ve talked alot here about private pensions, too…but that’s not the topic today). What I have noticed regarding the drumbeat on public pensions is its eerie similarity to the drumbeat around Social Security: benefits are too high and there just isn’t enough money to cover the pensions.

The fact is that is just malarky. Today, Mary Williams Walsh adds to her past articles on the “crisis” in the funding of public pensions. This past summer, she began a series of articles on the public pensions system with the basic theme: the sky is falling. Today, she tells us that:

Years of supporting court interpretations have enshrined the view that once a public employee has earned a pension, no one can take it away. Even during New York City’s fiscal crisis 30 years ago, no existing pension promises were reduced.

But now a number of state and local governments are quietly challenging those guarantees. Financially troubled San Diego is the highest-profile example, but a handful of states, cities and smaller government bodies have also found ways to scale back existing promises and even shrink some current payments.

While still only scattered cases, these examples may be an early warning sign of what could be coming elsewhere. As local officials take stock of unexpectedly large obligations to retired public workers, some are starting to question whether service cuts, sales of government property and politically acceptable tax increases can ever go far enough to bring things into balance.

Back in August, when Walsh raised this issue, I pointed out that a major problem is not per se the lack of places to find cash. The problems are two-fold: out-of-control health care costs AND the destruction of a progressive taxation system. If we had a single-payer health care system and if the wealthiest people in the country paid a fairer share of taxes, then, the “crisis” in the pensions would be a manageable issue–and not a crisis.

What we need is a public campaign to dispel the myth about the “crisis” facing public pensions. We need a sober look at the true reasons pension systems are short on cash and how to meet future obligations–which need not require benefit cuts.