UC Regents

| | | | | |

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,…

| | | |

UC Pension Solutions and the External Threats to Them

Byuclafaculty

In prior posts, I have noted that while the Regents can modify the UC pension plan in response to its underfunding problem, their actions could be overridden by external forces such as a ballot initiative covering all public pensions in California. Now comes word of another external threat, Congressional legislation that would effectively force public pensions to use a risk-free interest rate assumption in calculating their unfunded liabilities. The proposed legislation apparently would not technically force public pension authorities to do so but it would deny tax-favored status to their municipal bonds if they did not. I was alerted to…

|

Update on the Bad Deal for the State Involving a Regent

Byuclafaculty

In a previous post, I noted that the state – as part of its efforts to raise cash – wants to sell various state office buildings and then lease them back. A Regent, Hadi Makarechian – as part of a consortium of various investment groups – is one of the buyers. The prior post is at Bad Deal for State Involves a UC Regent [Note: If you have trouble using the link above directly, simply go back to the December 3, 2010 entries for this blog.] Since the prior post went into the reasons why the deal – which is…

| | | |

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…

|

The Future Lies Ahead: Final UCOF Report

Byuclafaculty

Press release from UCOP issued yesterday at:http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/24629 UC Commission on the Future (UCOF) final report released Date: 2010-12-06 The final report of the University of California Commission on the Future, convened last year to map out strategies to preserve excellence and access through the state fiscal crisis and beyond, was unveiled today (Monday, Dec. 6). The 20 recommendations endorsed by the commission address five broad categories: teaching and curriculum, undergraduate enrollment and access, research and graduate education, fiscal discipline and administrative reform, and public education and advocacy. The commission also cited contingency actions that, if the fiscal situation worsens, might…

| | |

How High Can the Employee Contribution Climb in UCRP? A Message from Dwight Read

Byuclafaculty

How High Can the Employee Contribution Climb in UCRP? Dwight Read, Chair, UCLA Faculty Association Now it is 2% of salary, next year, 3.5%, then 5%. But what will it be in 2017? …24%? In a special meeting scheduled for Dec. 13, the Regents will decide whether to introduce a New Pension Tier at UC for all new hires as of July 1, 2013. At the November Regents’ meetings, President Yudof presented a proposal for the New Tier that set the annual cost of the plan at 15.1% of retirement covered compensation with contribution rates at 8.1% for employers and…

| |

Regents Agenda for December 13 Special Session is Now Posted

Byuclafaculty

The Regents have long scheduled a special session to deal with post-retirement benefits but it did not appear on their website until yesterday. You can find the posting at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/dec10.html No new materials are attached to the posting for December. So presumably, what will be discussed is what was distributed at the regular November meeting. You can find that material at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/nov10.html Apparently, some discussion will occur on the report of the Committee on the Future (UCOF), at least during the beginning of the meeting. I don’t expect any fireworks from the Regents at this meeting, but in the photo…

|

Bad Deal for State Involves a UC Regent

Byuclafaculty

The California’s Capitol blog reported yesterday on the involvement of a UC regent in a bad deal for the state. By way of background, the state has a major budget problem. No secret about that. It also has a major cash problem linked to its budgetary distress. One way that the state deals with these allied problems is to borrow. It can engage in short-term borrowing through revenue anticipation notes (borrowing within a fiscal year) and revenue anticipation warrants (which allow cross-year borrowing). However, under normal circumstances, longer-term borrowing is constrained by the state constitution. In essence, such borrowing requires…

| | | | |

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…

| | | |

Regent Gould Talks About Pensions, Tuition, Concerns About Creating New Programs, and Anderson Self-Sufficiency

Byuclafaculty

UC Regents Chair Gould Talks Funds, Pension Plan Jordan Bach-Lombardo, November 30, 2010, Daily Californian http://www.dailycal.org/article/111368/uc_regents_chair_gould_talks_funds_pension_plan The Daily Californian interviewed UC Board of Regents Chair Russell Gould – who previously served as director of the California Department of Finance from 1993 to 1996 – on Nov. 23 about the University of California’s pension fund, which is facing significant changes due to its multibillion dollar funding deficit. Since the state halted contributions to the pension fund in 1990, the fund’s liabilities grew as its assets shrank, resulting in a $14 billion deficit as of August 2010. The regents voted in September…