The CalPERS headquarters in Sacramento. (Photo: Kit Leong, via Shutterstock)Once CalPERS could shrug off low funding and rising employer costs as just another downturn, staying the course in the long-term strategy of getting most of its money from market investments that go up and down. This time is different.
Gov. Jerry Brown discusses public pension issues at a Capitol budget briefing for reporters. (Photo: AP/Rich Pendroncelli, via calpensions.com) Gov. Brown leaves office next week with a smaller cost-cutting pension reform than he wanted. But after he’s gone, union challenges to minor parts of his reform pending in the state Supreme Court may open the door to big changes. The main parts of Brown’s reform add several years to retirement ages and make some employees pay more for their pensions.
The California Supreme Court. Standing, from left: Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Justice Carol A. Corrigan, Justice Goodwin H. Liu, and Justice Leondra R. Kruger. Seated, from left: Justice Kathryn M. Werdegar (Retired August 31, 2017), Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye, and Justice Ming W. Chin. (Photo: State Supreme Court)The state Supreme Court, with four similar cases on the backburner, gave few signs during recent oral arguments on a labor-union challenge to Gov. Brown’s pension reform that it’s ready to take on the “California Rule” preventing pension cuts.