Research Studies | California Policy Center

Comparing CalSTRS Pensions to Social Security Retirement Benefits

Summary: This study compares Social Security retirement benefits to CalSTRS pension benefits and finds a significant disparity between the plans, despite the employee contributions being relatively similar. For example, the average CalSTRS participant retires at age 62, which is the current earliest age one may collect Social Security retirement benefits. At age 62, the average...

By Edward Ring

How Much Do CalPERS Retirees Really Make?

INTRODUCTION The pay and benefits of public employees is a discussion of increasing relevance to taxpayers. As noted in a CPPC study published earlier this month “How Much Do California’s State, City and County Workers Really Make?,” in California, personnel costs are estimated to consume 40% of total city budgets, 41% of the state budget...

By Edward Ring

How Much Do California's State, City and County Workers Really Make?

INTRODUCTION What level of public employee pay and benefits are affordable and appropriate is a difficult but necessary discussion. And missing too often from this discussion is good data on just how much, on average, public employees are currently making. In California, the State controller has made available a database of public employee compensation, organized...

By Edward Ring

Sonoma County's Pension Crisis – Analysis and Recommendations

INTRODUCTION New Sonoma, a volunteer organization of financial experts and citizens concerned about the finances and governance of the County has just completed an extensive study of the County’s pension crisis. In addition to describing how the County has incurred over a billion dollars in unfunded pension and retiree health care liabilities, how the County...

By Ken Churchill

How to Think About Debt

Summary: Balancing the budget is a good idea and receives a lot of press. However, the budget is far less important than the steady growth of debts, unfunded obligations, and entitlements. These items are stealthy future deficits. To really understand whether or not we have financially sustainable government budgets, we have to go to the balance...

By Bill Fletcher

Are Annual Contributions Into CalSTRS Adequate?

Preface: Earlier this year the California Policy Center published a study evaluating the Orange County Employee Retirement System (OCERS) to explore this same question: Are Annual Contributions into OCERS Adequate? That study adopted a unique focus, evaluating contributions into OCERS not based on percent of payroll, but by looking at the actual amount of cash being contributed...

By Edward Ring

Are Annual Contributions Into Orange County's Employee Pension Plan Adequate?

By Ed Ring, August 30, 2013 Summary: During 2012 the Orange County Employee Retirement System, OCERS, collected $628 million from employees and employers to invest in their pension fund. Of this $628 million, $410 million was the so-called “normal contribution,” which was a payment to cover the present value of future pensions earned during 2012...

By Edward Ring

State Pension Litigation Update

By Joe Luppino-Esposito, August 9, 2013 About the Author: Joe Luppino-Esposito is an editor and author at State Budget Solutions, focusing on public employee pensions, labor law, and state budget reforms. Prior to joining SBS, Joe was a researcher at the Center for Union Facts, and previously served as a Visiting Legal Fellow at the Heritage...

By Edward Ring

A Method to Estimate the Pension Contribution and Pension Liability for Your City or County

July 24, 2013 Summary: With last week’s announcement that Detroit has declared bankruptcy, many wonder how their city, county, school district, or other government organization is doing. Citizens want their elected officials to behave responsibly so that what happened to Detroit won’t happen to them. But elected officials are not always cooperative when it comes...

By Edward Ring

How Big Are California’s State and Local Governments Combined?

June 21, 2013 By Bill Fletcher and Ed Ring SUMMARY: California’s local governments and agencies spent far more in FYE 6-30-2011, $316 billion, when compared to spending for direct state government operations, $49 billion. Similarly, using realistic assumptions regarding the value of unfunded retirement pension and healthcare obligations, the amount of long-term debt carried by...

By Edward Ring

Moody’s Final Adopted Adjustments of Government Pension Data

June 2, 2013 By John G. Dickerson About the Author: John Dickerson is a financial professional living in Mendocino County who is involved in public sector pension analysis and reform. Dickerson focuses on the impact of unfunded pension debt on the 21 California counties that operate their own independent Pension Funds. He is a financial...

By Edward Ring

Calculating California’s Total State and Local Government Debt

SUMMARY: The total outstanding government debt confronting California’s taxpayers is bigger than is generally known. Earlier this year, when Governor Brown referred to the $27.8 billion in state budgetary borrowings as a “Wall of Debt,” his intention was probably to warn Californians that balancing the state budget was only a first step towards achieving financial...

By Edward Ring

Irvine, California – City Employee Compensation Analysis

April 8, 2013 INTRODUCTION When the issue of public sector compensation is discussed, it is vital for participants to fully understand the concept of total compensation. Because the “wages” paid directly to a worker are only part of what they earn. Any costs for any direct benefits enjoyed by an employee that are paid for...

By Edward Ring

How Lower Earnings Will Impact California's Total Unfunded Pension Liability

By Ed Ring, February 18, 2013 SUMMARY: This study describes how actuaries calculate two key variables that govern pension solvency; the plan’s “accrued actuarial liability,” defined as the present value of all future obligations to pay pensions, and the plan’s “actuarial value of assets,” defined as the current value – adjusted upwards or downwards to...

By Edward Ring