health care

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Don’t Panic

Byuclafaculty

Some readers of yesterday’s New York Times who read the article about municipalities reneging on pensions may panic, particularly those readers close to retirement. There is a temptation to go for the lump-sum cashout in a panic, i.e., get the money while the getting is good. Before you do, however, it is important to note that states such as California and state agencies such as UC, do not have a legal means to declare bankruptcy. There is no legal way out of their pension obligations. Using the lump-sum option will eliminate your access to retiree health care. It is true…

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Maintaining a Healthy Balance

Byuclafaculty

UC has maintained a kind of cautionary balance for its health plans meant to smooth out sudden bumps in health care premiums. Since the state budget has squeezed the UC budget – including using UC as a loan department – the Regents approved various actions at their July meeting to try and deal with the cash crunch. Among these was tapping the health reserve. As the letter below (a public document I have been assured) indicates, the systemwide University Committee on Faculty Welfare has expressed concern about completely depleting the fund. Apparently, that is not the intention at this time,…

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Judge dismisses Livermore lab retirees’ lawsuit against UC: Transfer of retiree health plan deemed legal

Byuclafaculty

Background: A group of retired nuclear lab employees sued UC with regard to their transfer to a less desirable retiree medical plan than currently covers other UC employees. Readers may remember that for decades UC ran the labs as a legacy of the World War II Manhattan Project. When administration of the labs – after various security-related scandals – was transferred to a consortium of private contractors and UC, benefits such as pensions and health care became an issue. Judge dismisses Livermore lab retirees’ lawsuit: Transfer of retiree health plan deemed legal By Suzanne Bohan, Contra Costa Times, Updated: 06/08/2011…

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Regents Ponder Questions (With the aid of a management consultant)

Byuclafaculty

At the upcoming Regents session scheduled for the Ides of March, the Regents have invited a management consultant to help them ponder questions such as those below: * How can a more diverse student body be supported during a period of flattening or declining federal/or state appropriation? * How do we attract target students with the capacity to provide competitive tuition subsidization that is competitive with peer institutions? * Is the University effectively evaluating alternatives to traditional education practices (e.g. three year degrees, a multi-year tuition schedule) to help address student access and affordability issues? * How robustly is the…

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Livermore Retirees Sue University Over Health Care Benefits

Byuclafaculty

Livermore Retirees Sue University Over Health Care Benefits (excerpt) Elizabeth Lesly Stevens, NY Times, 1/1/11 As one of the country’s leading nuclear physicists at one of the country’s most prestigious scientific institutions, Jay Davis has worked in the golden hills of Livermore and weapons depots of Iraq. In 1988, Mr. Davis founded the renowned Livermore Lab’s Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, which reveals the chemical makeup of substances and has helped advance research across many disciplines. …Now, to Mr. Davis’s surprise, his long association with Livermore Lab has brought him to a courthouse in Oakland. There, a State Superior Court…

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Newspaper Editorial Unhappy With “Happy Talk” About UC Pension Fix

Byuclafaculty

Yet another reminder that the pension/retirement issue at UC did not end with the December Regents meeting below: UC president’s happy talk not helpful (excerpt) San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial December 20, 2010 Like so many public agencies in the Golden State, the University of California has promised vastly more in retirement benefits for its employees than it can afford. Taxpayers should find the UC system’s woes particularly appalling because of this fact: For two decades, the state and UC employees didn’t put aside any money at all toward future pension costs, leading to a current overall shortfall of $13.4 billion….

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Audio of Regents Meeting of 12-13-10: UCOF Approval & Post-Employment Benefits Plan Approval

Byuclafaculty

Below are links to the audio of the Regents meeting of 12-13-10. There are 13 segments. (A couple of minutes of noise at the beginning of Part 1 have been omitted during which there were problems in linking two locations. The meeting officially began once the link was established.) At this meeting, the Regents approved the UCOF (University Committee on the Future) report as well as the Yudof plan for post-employment benefits (pension & retiree health care). The Regents meeting took place with a video link to UCLA where some Regents attended. As the previous post on this blog noted,…

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The New Pension & Retiree Health Care Plan to be Considered by the Regents Now on the Web

Byuclafaculty

The post-employment benefits plan (pension and retiree health care) proposed by President Yudof is now on the Regents’ website for consideration at the December 13 special meeting of the Regents. It is what was previously presented at the November meeting. As previous posts have noted, there will be a two-tier pension plan. It is unclear whether incumbent employees will have the option to switch to the new lower tier. An IRS approval would be needed for that option to be offered. The proposal is at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/dec10/j1.pdf I am not expecting a great deal of controversy among the Regents on this…

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New Pension Initiative Could Override Regents’ Action

Byuclafaculty

I have noted in prior posts that UC’s plans for its retirement program could be overridden by a ballot initiative. A new pension ballot initiative is in the works. In the past, no pension initiative made it on to the state ballot. The closest such an initiative has come was in 2005 as part of the governor’s “Year of Reform” effort. In that case, the initiative was pulled due to a controversy over the impact on survivor benefits of public safety workers. While it costs only $200 to file an initiative, getting the signatures in practice requires hiring signature gathering…

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December Brings a Special Legislative Session on the State Budget

Byuclafaculty

One of Governor Schwarzenegger’s last major actions was to call an emergency session on the state budget. Although he is a lame duck at this point and will be out of office in early January, the legislature begins anew in December. The state is carrying a legacy debt of about $6 billion in the general fund (i.e., the fund is projected to close on June 30, 2011 with a negative balance of -$6 billion). A projected operating deficit on a workload basis for next year – the year beginning July 1, 2011 – is about $19 billion. Of course, we…