This is simply a tale of having a gun put to your head: vote “yes” or we screw you even harder.
Coming to terms with what came to be seen as inevitable, this city’s public-sector retirees have voted to lower their expected pension benefits, a crucial step in the city’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy before the end of the year.
The result, announced late Monday night, came after two months of court-required voting.
The balloting revealed a belief by current workers and retirees that the city’s offer — as much as 4.5 percent cuts to some pensions and diminished future cost-of-living increases — would be even worse if this one was rejected. It also reflected a series of deals struck over months with the leaders of unions, retiree groups and pension funds who had, in some cases reluctantly, called on their members to vote yes to cutting their own pensions. Some retirees said they had voted yes because they felt there was no good alternative.
