High Speed Rail Won’t Impact Climate Change

California school district pension contributions on track to exceed $11 billion by 2023

C alifornia school and community college districts are contributing $5.6 billion to CalSTRS and CalPERS during the current school year. These contributions will total $6.7 billion in the next school year, and, according to CPC’s analysis of actuarial projections, they will reach $11.3 billion in the 2022-2023 school year. In 2015-2016, CalPERS and CalSTRS collected...

By Marc Joffe

California Local Government Pension Burdens 2017 Update

CPC’s latest review of pension reports and local government financial documents reveals the following: In Fiscal Year 2017-2018, California local governments will pay about $5.3 billion to CalPERS. We project those CalPERS payments will rise to $9.8 billion in Fiscal 2022-2023 – an increase of 84%. In the coming fiscal year alone, California governments will pay...

By Marc Joffe

$100k Pension Club

Over 50,000 California public employees received pension benefits of $100,000 or more last year. Learn more about these beneficiaries at our $100k pension club web site.

By Marc Joffe

Senate Hearings Reveal the Weak Case for High-Speed Rail

I testified for the first time before a state legislative committee on Tuesday. My main takeaways: The argument in favor of High-Speed Rail is catastrophically weak, and parking near the State Capitol is awful. My testimony did little to persuade Senate Transportation and Housing Committee members. They ultimately killed SB414, a bill that would have...

By Marc Joffe

Brown’s New Transportation Taxes Will Hurt Working-Class Commuters Most

On March 29, Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders announced a 10-year $52.4 billion transportation plan that will boost the cost of living dramatically for working-class commuters. Transportation projects in the plan, now part of Senate Bill 1, will be funded by additional vehicle registration fees and a 12-cent per gallon increase in fuel taxes. While the registration fees...

By Marc Joffe

Why We’re Going to Focus on Opposing High-Speed Rail (and Why You Should Too)

Prudence is always a virtue, but it is especially vital for those with large debts and limited means to repay them. Our state, whose public obligations total over half the size of our economy, is in no position to take on more imprudent spending projects. Advocates of California High Speed Rail have not provided convincing...

By Marc Joffe

A Progressive Take on Public Pensions

While the public pension crisis has been an issue on the right for many years, left-wing thinkers show relatively little interest in the issue. When progressives do opine on pensions, they often reject the alarm expressed by conservatives, seeing it as a smokescreen for unneeded austerity or a way to attack the public sector. In...

By Marc Joffe

California Fire Districts are Morphing into Retirement Plans

The East Contra Costa Fire District (ECCFD) has financial problems because it pays more for retirement benefits than it does in salaries to current employees. With most of its staff eligible to retire on the 3% at 50 formula and at least two current retirees receiving more than $100,000 annually, the district is functioning as...

By Marc Joffe

Contracting With OC Sheriff Means Buying Into Expensive Union Benefits

Thirteen of Orange County’s 34 cities contract their policing services to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Contracting out services can save cities the hassles and costs of dealing with their own unionized workforces. But when Orange County cities contract with the County Sheriff, they are absorbing the high cost of OC’s unionized law enforcement. The...

By Marc Joffe

Wanted: An Early Warning System for Local Governments

This article originally appeared in The Capitol Weekly. Back in 2012, then Treasurer Bill Lockyer called for an early warning system that would give state officials time to proactively address local government fiscal emergencies before they wound up in bankruptcy court. We are now five years closer to the next recession and its attendant set of...

By Marc Joffe

BART’s Wasteful Union Contracts

Last week we learned that a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system janitor managed to boost his annual compensation to $271,000 by clocking an enormous number of overtime hours – hours that apparently were often devoted to sleeping in a subway station closet. The revelation reminds Bay Area commuters that BART’s unreliable service comes with...

By Marc Joffe

California City and County Fiscal Strength Index – 2017 Update

Relative to earlier years and their peers in other states, most California city and county governments were in good financial condition at the end of fiscal year 2015. California Policy Center’s study of audited financial statements and socioeconomic indicators show widespread fiscal strength, but a few trouble spots as well. Our analysis extends a fiscal...

By Marc Joffe

Orange County Fire Authority’s Hefty Overtime Bill a Bad Deal for Irvine Taxpayers

Irvine’s City Council has directed city staff to explore the possibility of leaving the Orange County Fire Authority in 2020. The Council wants to find a more cost effective way to provide fire protection services to city residents. If Irvine can find an alternative that constrains firefighter compensation – especially overtime pay– it may be on the right track....

By Marc Joffe