uc retirement

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Moody’s Evidently Thinks the State Has an Obligation for the UC Pension

Byuclafaculty

Calpensions.com is reporting that Moody’s is counting state (any state, not just California) pension debt, along with regular bond debt, in calculating total obligations. Presumably, this sum will be considered in rating bonds. I imagine most folks will take this as Bad News. But note that UC has struggled to get the state to acknowledge that it had a liability for the UC pension. The state is making contributions to its other major pension plans, CalPERS and CalSTRS, but it is not doing anything for UC, forcing the University to divert resources from its general operations. Thanks to efforts of…

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Why the UC Pension Reform May Be Undone

Byuclafaculty

Pension reform – finally? John Diaz, San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 30, 2011 Until very recently, all but a few lonely politicians had one of three reactions to the topic of pension reform: glazed eyes, denial or lip service. But that was before the revelations that top dogs in tiny working-class Bell were pillaging the town treasury for their personal gain, before 36 University of California executives threatened legal action to prevent the state from calculating their pension on a $245,000 limit instead of their actual stratospheric salaries and before the governor’s new budget asked Californians to brace for deeper budget…

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Legislative Analyst Acknowledges UC Pension Issue for State

Byuclafaculty

In his press conference on Jan. 12 on the state budget, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor explicitly raised the issue of state funding for the UC pension. Those who follow that issue know that at one point, the Leg Analyst took the position that the state had no responsibility for the UC pension. After a meeting with UCLA Faculty Association reps, that position changed. The legislature dropped language asserting that it had no liability for the UC pension. Of course, so far, no actual funding has appeared. The relevant part of the press conference is on the video below:

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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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Another Editorial Complaint About UC Retirement as Too Generous

Byuclafaculty

Yet another reminder that what the Regents did at their December meeting may not turn out to be the last word. Past posts on this blog have noted that via ballot initiative, UC could be swept into some general change in all public-sector retirement plans. Here is another editorial complaining about UC’s changes in its retirement plans. Retirement ruin? Riverside Press-Enterprise Editorial, 12-20-10, Excerpt A university system that faces repeated budget squeezes cannot justify siphoning money away from education and into lavish pension benefits. The University of California has to rein in the escalating costs of its retirement plan. And…

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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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CUCFA statement about the Dec. 13th special Regent’s meeting

Byuclafaculty

Council of UC Faculty Associations statement about the Dec. 13th special Regent’s meeting At their Special Meeting on Monday, December 13, the Regents of the University of California will be making decisions on two significant issues– endorsing the principles of the UC Commission on the Future (UCOF) and drastically changing the University of California Retirement Plan (UCRP). “One thing we can agree on, said Robert Meister, President of the Council of UC Faculty Associations “is the first sentence of the UCOF Report: ‘UC is at a crossroads.’” Meister continued, “Unfortunately the University leadership has ignored the outcome of this year’s…

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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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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…