News

Earlier today, I posted the Jerry Brown proposal for state pensions, noting that it explicitly mentioned UC. Below are the Meg Whitman proposals from her campaign website. UC is not explicitly mentioned. However, whoever becomes governor also becomes an ex officio Regent. From the Meg Whitman campaign website Page 26 of http://www.megwhitman.com/userfiles/pdfs/policy_agenda.pdf Solve California’s Pension CrisisCalifornia currently has between $60 billion and $100 billion of unfunded state employee retirement liabilities that are owed by the taxpayers. This crisis has to be addressed to protect the retirement security of state workers and to make it possible to fix the budget mess…

Yesterday, I posted a news item on gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown’s proposals for state pensions. More details have now appeared on his campaign website. It is clear that UC is included, based on what appears on the website. From http://www.jerrybrown.org/pension Or pdf version:http://www.jerrybrown.org/sites/default/files/Jerry%20Brown%20for%20Governor%20Pension%20Reform.pdf Pension Reform Money needed to fund government employee pensions comes from three sources: contributions by the employees themselves, contributions by the government, and investment returns. Historically 60-75% of the funds have come from investment earnings. As Wall Street profits soared to unrealistic levels, state pension earnings grew abnormally and many California jurisdictions took advantage of what turned…

Note: It is unclear from this report whether Brown is confining his comments to CalPERS or whether he includes UC. Other editorial interjections in bold below. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-brown-pensions-20100723,0,7462149,print.story Brown details plan for California state worker pension reforms The Democrat would adopt some Schwarzenegger ideas, such as asking current employees to contribute more to their plans and raising the retirement age for new hires. By Michael J. Mishak, Los Angeles Times July 23, 2010 Unveiling one of his few major policy proposals Thursday, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown called for public-pension reform, embracing some of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ideas for curbing…

UC’s pension system (and its funding problem) is often lost in articles about public pensions in California. Usually the focus at the state level is on the big CalPERS and CalSTRS funds. Or it is on particular municipal pensions such as the pension of the bankrupt city Vallejo. The calpensions.com website, in an article today, did mention UC as part of a general discussion. The full article is at:http://calpensions.com/2010/07/22/pensions-the-good-the-bad-and-california/ The UC excerpt: “The UC Retirement System ended a two-decade contribution “holiday” this year. Neither employer nor employee paid into the system, while costs were covered by investment earnings. A required…