A majority of California voters are in favor of public-employeepension caps to help balance the state’s budget, according to apoll by The Los Angeles Times and USC.

Seventy percent of respondents say they favor a cap on pensionbenefits for current and future government workers, and 68 percentwant public employees to contribute more to their pensions.Fifty-two percent want the retirement age to be raised for publicemployees.

Changes and cuts to public workers’ pensions are being discussedacross the country, as states and cities try to squeezealready-tight budgets to reduce deficits.

"It's pretty clear that there's broad support for making changesin the area of pensions," said poll co-director StanleyGreenberg.

Poll director Dan Schnur was surprised by the findings, saying,"It's one thing for Republican governors in Wisconsin and Indiana to support these types of changes, but seeing this typeof support from California voters, even California Democrats, isreally remarkable."

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee saidthey expect proposals overhauling pension programs to be on ballotsin November.

Still, union members defend pensions. Art Pulaski, executivesecretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, believesthe public is misinformed about union benefits they think arelavish. He maintains that every worker is entitled to a pension,and not just an unsecured retirement susceptible to the ups anddowns of Wall Street. Instead of demonizing public employees,policymakers should concentrate on recreating stable retirementsfor private-sector workers, he said.