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232 Matching News Items |
| 1. |
Calpensions
Oct. 28, 2019 "A case that could result in the state Supreme Court reviewing the California Rule, which has overturned several voter-approved public pension cuts, is fully briefed and ready to be scheduled for oral arguments.... [T]he Supreme Court faces conflicting appeals court rulings, arising from former Gov. Brown's pension reform, and has a second chance to clarify how pensions can be cut or even lay out a new path." MORE >> |
| 2. |
Calpensions
Sept. 9, 2019 "Until a pension reform six years ago, CalPERS and CalSTRS members could boost their pensions by buying credit for up to five years of service without doing the work, thus the name 'air time.' ... Could cash or another debt-free incentive for early retirement be as effective as air time, if reducing or avoiding layoffs during a staff reduction is a goal? The question is not asked in the CalPERS and CalSTRS golden handshake programs." MORE >> |
| 3. |
Calpensions
July 29, 2019
"Investments earning 6.7 percent during the fiscal year that ended June 30 might seem like a good return ... [CalPERS] currently needs earnings of at least 7 percent to balance its books for the year. So the small loss, .3 percent, creates a new layer of debt to add to the many layers of debt from previous years with investment losses.... [U]nder a reform adopted by the CalPERS board last year new debt from investment losses will be paid off over 20 years instead of 30 years[.]"
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| 4. |
Calpensions
July 1, 2019
"Despite a fund reaching $368 billion last week during a record bull market, CalPERS is far from recovering its 100 percent funding in the year before the 2008 crash. It still has only 70 percent of the projected assets needed to pay growing future pension costs.... Last month the CalPERS board ... received a staff report on planning for the next 'drawdown,' defined as a 20 percent drop in the market for at least three months."
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| 5. |
Calpensions
June 17, 2019
"CalPERS is stepping up its ESG investment program, despite evidence that funds based only on environmental, social and corporate governance strategies have tended to underperform.... CalPERS is working with Wellington Management and the Woods Hole Research Center on quantitative models and other analytical tools to improve the assessment of climate risk and investment outcomes."
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| 6. |
Calpensions
June 3, 2019
"A new state workplace retirement savings program, CalSavers, will open to an estimated 250,00 to 300,000 employers on July 1 -- offering an automatic IRA payroll deduction for the 7.5 million California workers with no retirement plan on the job.... For businesses with five or more employees, the program is mandatory. They must offer employees CalSavers, or a qualified retirement plan chosen by the employer, to avoid a penalty for repeated non-compliance of $750 per employee."
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| 7. |
Calpensions
May 13, 2019
"In addition to using non-Proposition 98 state money to pay part of school rates, the governor's plan would spend $2.3 billion over four years to pay down the school district share of CalSTRS debt, saving more than $7 billion over three decades. With state aid to get over the hump of the last two years of rising CalSTRS rates, struggling school districts would then face rates, under current projections, that drop slightly and remain stable for more than two decades."
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| 8. |
Calpensions
Apr. 1, 2019
"Retiree health care costs and debt are rising rapidly in some cases ... due to increasing health care costs, longer life spans, and aging workforces. Many cities have taken steps to curb costs.... Thirteen of the 15 cities in the study are prefunding retirement health care, putting money in a pension-like investment fund to help pay future costs as recommended by the governor's commission in 2008. Fresno is still pay-go, only covering the annual cost."
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| 9. |
Calpensions
Mar. 11, 2019
"The ruling was a rare pension court loss for unions, led by Cal Fire Local 2881. While awaiting the next case, lawyers are analyzing the 45-page ruling ... for any hint of clarifying or reshaping the California Rule. Among the main points in the ruling is that public employment is ordinarily statutory, rather than contractual, and can be modified by the governing body." [Cal Fire Local 2881 v. CalPERS, No. S239958 (Cal. Mar. 4, 2019)]
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| 10. |
Calpensions
Feb. 11, 2019
"Transparent California, a website listing the pay and pension of state and local government employees, has filed a lawsuit to force CalPERS to identify retiree pensions with a one-word label as 'service' or 'disability.'... The Transparent California suit, in an example of how publicly identifying retirement could help curb fraud, cited a CalPERS news release on a hotline tip that led to the court-ordered recovery of $203,876 from a former state hospital worker in Coalinga."
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| 11. |
Calpensions
Jan. 21, 2019
"Vallejo has taken two steps to reduce pension costs. An extra $6.5 million payment was made to CalPERS in fiscal 2013-14. Two years ago a $1 million payment was made to a new trust that sets aside money to help pay future pension costs. And yet, Vallejo's police and firefighter pension rate is among the top two dozen listed by CalPERS. It was 28.1 percent of pay in 2008, more than doubled to 68 percent of pay this fiscal year, increases to 78 percent in July, and in 2024 is an estimated 90 percent of pay."
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| 12. |
Calpensions
Jan. 7, 2019
"[As] Gov. Brown leaves office, ending what he called the 'anomaly' of retirees paying less for health care than current workers is part of one of his accomplishments ... The state no longer pays for Medicare Part B. And five more years of service are needed to receive state payment of retiree health care premiums, beginning with 50 percent after 15 years and increasing 5 percent a year to 100 percent after 25 years.... [T]he major part of Brown's retiree health care reform applies to workers hired before the reform, not just new hires. All workers are beginning to contribute to a pension-like investment fund to help pay future retiree health care costs."
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| 13. |
Calpensions
Dec. 17, 2018
"The main CalSTRS pension fund is seriously underfunded, and school district pension costs are more than doubling, biting deep into classroom budgets. But a CalSTRS inflation-protection fund has a growing $9.8 billion surplus and an eye-popping positive cash flow.... [T]he add-on inflation protection is a separate special fund ... [which is] paid for only by the state ... Step-by-step, inflation protection grew from 58.4 percent to 85 percent of original purchasing power."
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| 14. |
Calpensions
Dec. 6, 2018
"The state Supreme Court, with four similar cases on the backburner, gave few signs during oral arguments on a labor-union challenge to Gov. Brown's pension reform yesterday that it's ready to take on the 'California Rule' preventing pension cuts."
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| 15. |
Calpensions
Nov. 5, 2018
"CalSavers is scheduled to launch a pilot Nov. 19 for an on-the-job retirement savings plan, formerly known as Secure Choice ... Employers with five or more employees, who do not offer a retirement plan, will be required by state law to offer the CalSavers plan to their employees ... Employees can opt out. After the pilot and the voluntary period beginning next July 1, employers with 100 or more employees must register with CalSavers by June 30, 2020, employers with 50 to 99 employees by June 30, 2021, and employers with 5 or more employees by June 30, 2022."
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| 16. |
Calpensions
Apr. 16, 2018
"Last year was one of the best ever for the CalPERS investment fund, a gain of $47 billion that boosted the total to $350 billion. But pension funding only increased from 68 to 71 percent of the projected assets needed to pay future costs.... That a $47 billion investment gain only makes a small change in pension funding shows the difficulty CalPERS still faces in recovering from a $100 billion investment loss a decade ago, when the funding level nosedived from 101 percent to 61 percent."
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| 17. |
Calpensions
Apr. 9, 2018
"Many of the union opposition letters mention the shift of investment risk to employees, potential problems created by a five-year vesting period and a 401(k) employer contribution limited to the pension normal cost, and questions about investment fees and management.... A California Faculty Association letter said the bill 'would promote 401(k)-style retirement plans over more state-run pension plans' and would set a 'dangerous precedent' by allowing state employees to opt out of CalPERS."
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| 18. |
Calpensions
Mar. 26, 2018
"An appeals court ruled last week that six judges have no vested right to pensions uncut by a reform, even though they were elected a half year before the reform took effect on Jan. 1, 2013. An appellate panel unanimously ruled the judges elected to superior courts in June and July of 2012 did not obtain a vested right to a pension until Jan. 7, 2013, when they took office and began drawing a state salary." [McGlynn v. California, No. A146855 (Cal. App. Mar. 20, 2018)]
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| 19. |
Calpensions
Feb. 12, 2018
"The ability to absorb rising pension costs varies from city to city ... but one thing unsustainable for all is the erosion of basic services.... [U]ncertainty causes reluctance to fully staff police, fire departments, and public works maintenance. As discretionary services such as libraries, parks and recreation are threatened, long-term commitments are less likely. Though the economy is growing and unemployment is low, cities are forced to make tough budget decisions."
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| 20. |
Calpensions
Jan. 16, 2018
"[K]ey parts of a pension reform Brown pushed through the Legislature six years ago, which extended retirement ages and capped pensions, were limited to new hires who have no vested right to the benefits cut to reduce costs.... [T]he Brown reform provides little immediate relief for struggling pension systems. Significant savings could take decades because key parts only apply to employees hired after the reform took effect on Jan. 1, 2013."
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