Enron billionaire expands craven plot to abuse workers

A billionaire's scheme to loot public workers' pensions now includes a shadowy front group -- and brand-new target

By David Sirota

A week after the simultaneous release of my Institute for America’s Future report and Matt Taibbi’s Rolling Stone investigation into John Arnold, huge news hit California: The Enron billionaire whose former company wrecked the Golden State’s economy appears to be using a shadowy Texas front group to now try to loot the Golden State’s public pension system. As the Sacramento Bee reports (emphasis added):

With the first deadline looming for a new public-pension proposal to make the November 2014 ballot, a Texas nonprofit has emerged in a behind-the-scenes battle poised to break into public view next year.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, a Democrat pushing a controversial idea to dial down government retirement benefits, asked a Houston-based group (called Action Now Initiative) to give $200,000 to his local chamber of commerce last summer for “policy analysis for statewide pension reform” according to a report Reed filed in August…