How Can Local Elected Officials Control Employee Retirement Costs Employee retirement costs are a growing burden for California governments. As CalPERS and other multi-employer systems reduce their expected rates of return, required employer pension contributions are rising rapidly, usually outpacing revenue growth. As a result, retirement expenditures are crowding out other spending priorities, and, in...
Later this month, we should hear some rare good news from CalPERS. Portfolio returns for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017 may exceed 10%. The strong performance on the back of Donald Trump’s bull market that many think has ended may provide a respite for state and local governments struggling with increased pension contributions....
Across California, many local governments have raised taxes while cutting services. Local officials desperate for union support have made irresponsible deals with public employee unions, creating staggering employee costs. Taxpayer money meant to provide essential services to the least well-off instead goes directly to higher salaries and benefits. In Santa Barbara County, the 2017-2018 budget...
With California Governor Jerry Brown termed out in 2018, prominent Democratic Party politicians crave the highest executive position in the country’s most influential state. They’re figuring out which campaign strategies will allow them to become one of the two top finishers in the June 2018 primary elections and thus advance to the November 2018 general...
San Diegans voted five years ago this month to switch all new city hires, except police, from pensions to 401(k)-style individual investment plans, becoming one of the first big cities to take the plunge. Jacksonville, Fla., took a bigger step last April, switching all new employees including police and firefighters to 401(k)-style plans. Last week,...
Special from Robb Korinke | California City News It’s no secret the country is more polarized than ever – and polling of local elected officials shows it’s no different among our state’s mayors and councilmembers. As part of the 10th anniversary of CaliforniaCityNews.org, we partnered with the Prime Group, an opinion research firm with offices in Los Angeles...
If you are the average taxpayer living in the average California small city, chances are pretty good you know very little about local politics, can name a city council member or even care where city hall is located. Chances are even greater you have no interest in dull topics like Unfunded Liabilities, CalPERS or public...
Governor Brown's proposal to borrow money to fund CalPERS is similar to a move by Puerto Rico in 2008. That step backfired and now Puerto Rico is bankrupt.
Retired LA schools chief Ramon Cortines received pension benefits totaling a remarkable $238,383.67 last year, possibly through a controversial pension-spiking practice known as “air time” – the purchase of credit for time not worked.
In a northern California suburb, residents were surprised to learn that firefighters pull down over $300,000 in annual compensation. See how they reacted.
Climb into a time machine with me and voyage back to Dec. 8, 2016. A slightly younger Barack H. Obama is still the nation’s president. Four weeks after his electoral shock therapy, President-elect Donald Trump has just been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. And the California Policy Center has filed a state public...
Twenty-five University of California retirees receive more than $300,000 annually in retirement, the California Policy Center has learned. The information, contained in documents released to CPC through a public records request, comes amidst controversy over excessive compensation at the UC system and revelations of a secret slush fund at the system’s headquarters. The highest paid pensioner is Professor Lewis L. Judd, a UC San Diego Psychiatry professor. He receives an annual pension of $385,765.
Sacramento – Tens of thousands of people marched in hundreds of cities last week as part of something billed as the March for Science. The event, which coincided with Earth Day, was meant to rebuke the Trump administration’s global-warming skepticism and its plan to cut taxpayer funding for the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies...
If you’re wondering how far unions and the California officials will go to kill any reform of the state’s overburdened public pension system, wonder no more: consider instead the final chapter, last week, in a state agency’s long-running effort to invalidate San Diego’s 2012 citywide vote to reform pensions. The good news: a California appeals court rejected the...