True or false: "Many civil servants can retire at 50 or 55 years old with virtually full salary and health care benefits until the day they die."

You'll be able to answer that for yourself in a minute. First, some context.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman made that assertion recently during a Q&A with the Sacramento County Republican Party and recorded by Bee reporter Jack Chang.

The former eBay CEO was answering a question about whether public employee unions have a "stranglehold" on state government.

Public employee pensions and benefits have become a huge political issue around the nation as governments face billions and billions of dollars in retirement promises to baby boomers now on the cusp of retirement.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Whitman have both said California state worker pensions are too rich. And a locally based pension-reform group is trying to qualify a ballot initiative for November 2010 that could roll back retirement benefits for all state and local government hires. (Retirement benefits for current employees can't be legally changed.)

On the other side, public employees and their unions argue that cutting pension benefits breaks an implicit understanding: Civil service means you earn less now than what counterparts in the private sector make, but you get better benefits and a more secure retirement later. Cut the benefits, and you can kiss off recruiting and retaining good people.

Often the side framing the argument wins the debate. That's where Whitman's "many civil servants" remark comes into play: It assumes a fact (public pensions pay 100 percent of many workers' pay when they retire young) to justify a conclusion (let's cut pensions).

Here are the statistics for state worker pensions.

Peace officers, firefighters, correctional officers and highway patrol, about 3 percent of the state work force, can retire at 50 with 3 percent of their pay multiplied by their years of service – with a cap at 90 percent of their highest annual wage.

State safety officers, park rangers, wardens and prison instructors can retire at 55 with 2.5 percent of their pay multiplied by years of service. They max out at 80 percent and make up about 19 percent of state workers.

The rest, about two-thirds of the state's 248,000 workers, qualify for 2 percent at age 55. To take their full pay into retirement at that age would mean their state service started in kindergarten. Unlikely.

Was Whitman's statement true of false? You decide.