pension

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Audio Recording Indicates that UC Needs to Talk With Legislative Leaders on Pensions

Byuclafaculty

Yesterday’s State Worker blog of the Sacramento Bee carried a story about remarks by California State Senate President Darrell Steinberg on public pensions.  It includes a link to a recording of Steinberg’s remarks on pensions at a press conference of 1-26-2012.  Good luck with that link; the IT guy at the Bee must have gone home for the weekend.  Nevertheless, yours truly has come to the rescue and you can hear it without hassle by clicking on the link below. There is a back story which state politicos will understand regarding Steinberg’s remarks.  Last year, the legislature kept waiting for…

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Plenty of Nothing

Byuclafaculty

Here is a quote from the governor’s recent budget proposal: “The University of California (UC) will receive an increase of $90 million General Fund for base operating costs, which can be used to address costs related to retirement program contributions.” Question: What does it mean?  Answer: Nothing.  UC has always been free to take its general revenue and put it into the pension fund.  Indeed, since the state has so far refused to resume paying the employer contribution for state-funded employees into the pension fund, that is what UC has been doing. Question: If it means nothing, why are you…

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Not Worth a Mention?

Byuclafaculty

Gov. Brown delivered his “State of the State” speech yesterday.  Click below for the speech.  Lots of topics are discussed.  Higher ed, however, is not one of them.  An earlier post noted that UC is like a flea on the back of an elephant when it comes to state budgeting and such.  That message was reinforced yesterday.  But perhaps our absence will make the governor’s heart grow fonder.  Valentine’s Day is coming up after all.  The governor did mention his public pension plan in the speech – which would sweep UC into a larger state change.  With regard to that…

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Crane Dropped the Ball and Now Sees Himself as Galileo

Byuclafaculty

Our favorite ex-Regent, David Crane, is now comparing himself to Galileo for his unhelpful stand on the Regents regarding pensions. Readers of this blog will know that Crane was appointed in the fleeting minutes of former Governor Schwarzenegger’s term to the Regents. But he was never confirmed by the state senate and his term thus ended in late 2011. While on the Board, Crane – who evidently wanted to make government pensions generally his issue – was not helpful in differentiating the steps the Regents had taken in modifying UCRP from other state pensions such as CalPERS.  UC is in…

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Goodbye Crane – And Thanks for Your Kind Remarks

Byuclafaculty

Pension reform crusader David Crane steps down today as a member of the University of California Board of Regents.  That’s because the state Senate didn’t confirm his appointment to the post within the year prescribed by law. …Crane, a Democrat, was Schwarzenegger’s point man on public pensions. He contended that the state’s three largest funds, including UC’s, were committing “generational theft“ by understating their liabilities and siphoning money from schools and social programs…Full article: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/27/4146490/the-buzz-pension-reform-crusader.html

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Audio of the Nov. 7 Regents Committee on Compliance & Audit

Byuclafaculty

The UC Regents Committee on Compliance and Audit met on November 7, 2011 in advance of the full Regents meeting that was originally scheduled for the following week. The full Regents meeting was postponed due to concern about possible violent demonstrations. This blog has been making available audios of the Regents meetings. A link to the audio can be found at the bottom of this blog entry. During the public comment section of the Committee meeting, the first speaker made a satirical speech for privatizing UC on behalf of the 1%, as opposed to the 99%, as per the Occupy…

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UC Announces Union Deal: Wages Up for Two-Tier Pension

Byuclafaculty

UC, clerical union reach five-year agreement Date: 2011-12-12 Contact: University of California Office of the President Phone: (510) 987-9200 OAKLAND — The University of California announced today (Dec. 12) that it has finalized a five-year agreement with the Coalition of University Employees on wages, benefits and other issues for more than 12,500 clerical staff. “We are pleased our clerical unit is finally under contract. The efforts between CUE-Teamsters and the university produced a fair agreement where both sides made difficult choices,” said Dwaine B. Duckett, vice president of systemwide human resources. “We are particularly pleased they proactively came to the…

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Details on Governor’s Pension Plan?

Byuclafaculty

CalPERS has released (or someone has leaked) a draft set of comments about the governor’s 12-point pension plan. Much of what is questioned is not relevant to UC which has its own problems with the plan. (See prior posts on the legislative hearings on the plan and other aspects of it.) However, the CalPERS draft makes it clear that there is much more to be resolved than just okaying the governor’s proposed 12 points. The fact that the proposal has different implications for the various plans that CalPERS administers – something clear from the document – opens the door to…

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What’s the right headline?

Byuclafaculty

The California Field Poll produced the table above. But what is the right headline? The news release from Field says PLURALITY OF VOTERS SEES PUBLIC PENSIONS AS TOO GENEROUS. MOST REACT POSITIVELY TO BROWN’S REFORM PROPOSALS, WANT PENSION CHANGES TO APPLY TO BOTH CURRENT AND NEW PUBLIC EMPLOYEES But the headline could have been that despite all of the bad PR public pensions have had, 49% of voters think public pensions are about right or not generous enough. The news media will follow the Field headline. Keep the alternative in mind if some proposition on pensions gets on the ballot….

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More pension hearings?

Byuclafaculty

We posted audios from the legislature’s public pension hearings on December 1. Apparently, according to the State Worker blog of the Sacramento Bee, there will be more hearings to come. Although the special pension committee was supposed to have concluded its work by January, …”This cannot be a two-hearing answer,” said Democratic Sen. Gloria Negrete-McLeod, co-chair of the panel. A spokeswoman for Democratic Assemblyman Warren Furutani, also a co-chair, said the committee will probably end up holding at least four hearings in all “in order to get through all of the information.” … Whatever the motives of the committee, if…