Posts Tagged: pension

News

Newsom boosts pension-cost relief for schools

Near the entrance to the CalSTRS building in West Sacramento. (Photo: ZiKG, via Shutterstock)

School districts would get more pension cost relief under a revised state budget proposed last week by Gov. Newsom. The governor’s $700 million plan to lower scheool pension costs during the last two years of a seven-year CalSTRS rate increase would get an additional $150 million, if approved by the Legislature.

News

Brown leaves with pension reform pending

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.

Recent News

CalPERS president loses board seat to policeman

CalPERS headquarters, downtown Sacramento. (Photo: CalPERS)

The new CalPERS president, Priya Mathur, lost her board seat this week, defeated by a Corona police sergeant, Jason Perez, who wants to shift the $360 billion investment fund toward higher yields that secure pensions with less focus on social issues. Mathur, a Bay Area Rapid Transit District analyst serving on the board since 2002, rose to the leadership post in January.

News

CalPERS may join union foes of 401(k) option

The CalPERS headquarters in Sacramento. (Photo Shutterstock)

A bill by state Sen. Steven Glazer, D-Orinda, giving new state workers the option new University of California workers received two years ago, a 401(k)-style plan rather than a pension, is opposed by unions and soon may be opposed by CalPERS. More than a third of eligible new UC employees have chosen a 401(k)-style plan. Instead of a guaranteed lifetime monthly pension check, the 401(k) plan that replaced pensions in most of the private sector uses individual tax-deferred investments to build a retirement fund.

News

CalPERS seeks legislation to fix pension error

CalPERS headquarters, downtown Sacramento. (Photo: CalPERS)

CalPERS wants unions and local government groups to come up with legislation that would retroactively correct a mistake that could lead to more pension cuts, like the 63 percent reduction last July in pensions promised about 200 former employees of LA Works.

News

California’s boldest pension reform, five years in

Photo illustration of a nest egg. (Photo: Hidesy, via Shutterstock)

If you don’t give city employees a pension, what happens? 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.

News

State pension systems: NY outperforms California

The CalPERS board of governors during a meeting at the pension system's headquarters. (Photo: CalPERS)

New York state pension systems are better funded than California state pension systems, currently take a smaller bite out of state and local government budgets, and still provide pension benefits well above the national average. How do they do it?

News

Appeals court allows pension cuts, backs San Diego

A view across the rail years of downtown San Diego. (Photo: Welcomia, via Shutterstock)

Calpensions: In another ruling allowing pension cuts, an appeals court last week overturned a state labor board ruling that a voter-approved San Diego pension reform was invalid because the city declined to bargain the issue with labor unions.

News

CalPERS makes debt, cost difficult to see

CalPERS' governing board during a 2013 meeting. (Photo: CalPERS board)

Calpensions: New annual CalPERS reports no longer prominently display the pension debt of local governments as a percentage of pay, making it more difficult for the public to easily see the full employer pension cost.

News

Brown OKs state-run pensions for private workers

The road ahead upon retirement. (Photo illustration: Gustavo Frazao, via Shutterstock.)

Gov. Brown has signed historic legislation to set up California’s first state-run pension plan for private-sector workers, allowing millions of employees to continuously build a retirement nest egg regardless of where they work. The governor’s decision means California joins seven other states that offer similar programs, although California’s plan, called Secure Choice, will automatically enroll about 6.8 million workers.

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