Calpensions: An accounting board best known for requiring the calculation and reporting of the debt owed for retiree health care promised government workers, which often turned out to be shockingly large, is having another moment. This month the Governmental Accounting Standards Board applied new rules for reporting pension debt to retiree heath care.
A physician flanked by the California flag. (Illustration: Niyazz, via Shutterstock).OPINION: Imagine your friend built up $10,000 of debt from buying Christmas presents on credit. When he announces an intention to eliminate that debt, you ask how. He answers that, from now on, he’s going to purchase Christmas presents only with cash. Confused, you ask, “How do you pay off debt by not incurring more debt?” His response: “I don’t know, but my accountant says it works!” Believe it or not, that is the proposal California Governor Jerry Brown just made to eliminate $72 billion in state retiree health care debt.
Los Angeles has the best-funded retiree health care among the nation’s big cities, a new study found, and it’s also paying a big price for a policy praised by many but practiced by only a few.
The city’s rare attempt to set aside money now to pay for retiree health care promised in the