Public Pension Reform Recent News

SACRAMENTO — Members of a conference committee charged with crafting comprehensive pension-reform legislation this year urged Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday to quickly provide full details on how he envisions his proposed reforms would work.

"The public is starting to question if this committee is going to accomplish anything," said Sen. Mimi Walters, R-Laguna Niguel. "We need to prove to the public that we are very, very serious about moving forward with pension reform."

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San Jose city leaders took initial steps Tuesday toward ending their own state-run pension plan as they continue seeking workforce retirement concessions.

The council voted unanimously to notify the California Public Employees' Retirement System of the city's intent to terminate the council member pension plan. CalPERS requires that step before it will calculate the cost of ending the benefit plan, which would include paying off shortfalls in the fund. The move doesn't commit the council to ending its pension plan, which would require a two-thirds vote of the council.

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With 1,200 members, Ventura County has one of the more active divisions of the California Retired Teachers Association. They're not a glamorous bunch.

The group holds its regular meetings in the basement of a retirement home. On the half-dozen occasions a year it puts on luncheons, it eschews pricey hotels and holds them instead at a banquet room at a municipal golf course.

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With the annual cost of employee pensions rising, top management officials at Sacramento City Hall have agreed to pay the entire employee share of their CalPERS retirement contributions.

That agreement – approved by a unanimous City Council vote on Tuesday night – follows a decision by the city's clerk, attorney, treasurer and manager to also pay their employee share.

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Sacramento - Assemblymember Michael Allen (D-San Rafael), a member of the Conference Committee on Public Employee Pensions, applauded the efforts by Governor Brown to find solutions to the pension issue. During his remarks at the public hearing held in the State Capitol Assemblymember Allen compared the pension reform issue to the battle over water, suggesting that solutions should not be based on a pension funds best performing year. Here’s more from Assemblymember Allen in this Assembly Access video.

The state Supreme Court put limits Monday on a local government's ability to cut health care benefits for retired employees, ruling in an Orange County case with implications for Bay Area pension disputes.

The court said in a unanimous decision that a city or county that sets retirement health coverage at a certain level, and implicitly promises to maintain it, can't revoke that pledge later and reduce benefits for employees who have retired.

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Reporting from Sacramento - Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to alter public pension benefits is courageous but legally dicey, and key pieces of it have not been fully developed, according to a new report from California's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office.

The report praised the governor for offering "a bold starting point for legislative deliberations" on pensions. And it lauded Brown's call to combine a 401(k)-style savings plan with the existing guaranteed-benefit system and raise the retirement age for most future public employees from 55 to 67. Those proposals would save the state millions of dollars down the road.

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In Modesto this week, viewers who tuned into the Monday night NFL game on ESPN saw an amusing commercial with a political punch line.

It begins inside a police station locker room, where a call for a SWAT team is coming over the radio as an officer is strapping on his uniform. His gloved hand then grabs the handle of a cane and he slowly rises as the camera zooms out to reveal the wrinkled face of an elderly man.

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SACRAMENTO -- California's top government analyst dealt a blow to Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed pension reforms Tuesday, suggesting that making substantial changes to the benefits of current workers is almost certainly illegal.

If the state's Legislative Analyst's Office is correct, it leaves Brown in a difficult bind as he seeks to contain a rapidly escalating expense blamed for many of the state's budget woes. Once pension benefits are granted, the LAO said, workers and their unions cannot lose them unless they agree to give them up.

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Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to overhaul public pensions rippled through the North Bay on Thursday, drawing mixed reaction from public employees, labor leaders, elected officials and fiscal watchdogs.

Aspects of his 12-point proposal could impact nearly all of Sonoma County's approximately 25,000 state, city, school and county workers. But the most sweeping changes would apply to future hires only.

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Gov. Jerry Brown estimates his public pension reform plan would save the state $4 billion to $11 billion over 30 years and $21 billion to $56 billion over 60 years. Local government pensions also would have to comply and would save proportionately similar sums, the administration said Thursday.

NEW WORKERS

These provisions would apply to new state and local workers:

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What is Gov. Jerry Brown proposing?

Among other revisions, Brown wants to:

Change pensions for future public employees, blending guaranteed benefits with a new 401(k)-style savings plan;

Raise the retirement age for most future public workers from 55 to 67 and require all public workers to contribute at least half of the cost of their retirement benefits;

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LOS ANGELES — Gov. Jerry Brown offered a far-reaching proposal on Thursday to reduce the cost to government of public pension programs, calling for an increase in the retirement age for new employees, higher contributions from workers to their own pensions and the elimination of what he termed abuses that have allowed retirees to inflate their pensions far beyond their annual salaries.

Mr. Brown made his proposal at a time when pension costs — exploding under the twin burdens of generous benefits passed by the Legislature during more prosperous times and the collapse of pension investments in the stock market — have posed one of the greatest threats to California’s fiscal stability. The proposal includes local governments, and much of it would have to be approved by voters in November.

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Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled a 12-point public pension reform plan this morning, and the reactions are already coming in. We'll keep adding to this post, so keep coming back to see what lawmakers as well as political, business and union leaders and others are saying.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento:

We agree with the Governor that ensuring the health and sustainability of our public employee pension systems is critical to both public sector workers and the taxpayers.

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The Joint Legislative Conference Committee on Public Employee Pensions held the first of three public hearings today in the city of Carson to discuss the current condition of the public pension system, including reforms recently implemented at both the state and local level. Members heard directly from state and local employers and employees who detailed recently enacted reforms aimed at reducing long term pension liabilities and employer costs while ensuring employees can retire with fair and adequate benefits.

The conference committee is working through the legislative interim recess to deliver a conference report for consideration early next year. "This hearing is very well timed as the Governor is set to release his proposal tomorrow. It offers a chance to take a detailed look at the foundation of the pension system," said Co-Chair Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod (D-Chino). "I am hopeful that the final outcome of these hearings will be a package that achieves real and measurable reforms that has broad support and represents a consensus agreement."

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