Posts Tagged: pensions

Opinion

Defined benefit pensions crucial for economic health

Couple enjoying a lake in Rancho Santa Margarita, Orange County.(Photo: VG Photo, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: As Americans confront the effects of a K-shaped recovery that is further enriching the wealthy even as low- and-middle income workers struggle to stay afloat, the chasm between Wall Street and Main Street has never seemed wider. Finding ways to bridge that chasm remains one of this nation’s greatest economic challenges.

Opinion

CalPERS has vital role in state’s economic recovery

The headquarters of the California Public Employees' Retirement System in Sacramento. (Photo: Kit Leong, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Those who think about CalPERS often limit their perspective to the context of pensions for public employees. But the reality is that every single person who wants to be able to get a job in a community with affordable housing, good schools, safe streets, and accessible public services needs CalPERS to be successful. Otherwise, we will all pay a steep price.

News

CalPERS gets candid about ‘critical’ decade ahead

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.

News

How a CalPERS-sponsored bill increased pensions

The CalPERS headquarters in Sacramento. (Photo: Kit Leong)

The annual payment to CalPERS for state worker pensions next fiscal year is expected to be $7 billion, a jump from $6.4 billion this year — and a quantum leap from $160 million when a pension increase, SB 400, was approved 20 years ago.

Opinion

Divestiture politics roils pensions, investments

Digitally tracking the performance of investment products in the bond market. (Illustration: Vintage Tone, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Thanks to Assembly Bill 33, introduced by State Assemblyman Rob Bonta, the California State Legislature will spend time and resources to codify an issue that California pensioners have spoken on before: divesting from high-performing funds for political purposes.AB 33, as written, would require that state retirement systems, namely California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), divest of all investments in private corrections companies and disallow investing in those same companies in the future.

News

CalSTRS’ finances reflect debt — and surplus

The photo gallery in the main entrance of CalSTRS' West Sacramento headquarters. (Photo: CalSTRS)

The main California State Teachers’ Retirement System pension fund is seriously underfunded, and school district pension costs are more than doubling, biting deep into classroom budgets. But the agency, called CalSTRS for short, has an inflation-protection fund with a growing $9.8 billion surplus and an eye-popping positive cash flow.

News

State high court sends few signals on major pension case

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.

Opinion

Forget naysayers: Public pension funds doing fine

A photo illustration of putting money aside as the clock ticks. (Image: Cozine, via Shutterstock)

OPINION:   Another round of alarmist commentary is being spread by those who begrudge a secure retirement for those who teach in our classrooms or heroically labor on the front lines of wildfires.  Amidst their negativity Californians may have missed a bit of positive news last month. The state’s two largest pension funds reported end-of-year investment returns that again exceeded their assumed average annual rate of return.

News

A city fights with CalPERS’ costs

CalPERS headquarters, downtown Sacramento. (Photo: CalPERS)

Monrovia’s city manager, Oliver Chi, told the city council the budget could absorb the CalPERS employer pension rate increases enacted in 2012, 2013, and 2014 — but a large fourth rate increase last December could push the city into insolvency.

Support for Capitol Weekly is Provided by: