Articles for category State Economy
The following PDF is a list of Bills that CSR is supporting, opposing, or watching.
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WALL STREET JOURNAL -- The nation’s biggest online tax-software company halted electronic filing of all state returns amid reports from states of criminal attempts to obtain refunds through its systems.
Intuit said its TurboTax unit took action Thursday after seeing attempts to use stolen personal information to file fraudulent returns for tax refunds.
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A new report on the fiscal health of CalPERS shows an estimated funding level of 77 percent for the Public Employees’ Retirement Fund (PERF) in 2014 – a positive growth of more than 7 percentage points over 2013. The PERF was funded at 69.8 percent as of June 30, 2013 based on the most recent actuarial value of assets. The PERF is the main pension trust fund that pays retirement benefits.
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Budget deliberation kicked off in the Capitol this morning with the release of Governor Brown’s proposed 2015-2016 state budget. He proposes $113.3 billion in general fund and $51.4 billion in special fund expenditures making for a $164.7 billion spending plan. This represents a 1.4 percent bump over current year spending.
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It’s official: Gov. Jerry Brown’s January budget proposal will include a plan to reduce the nearly $72 billion in unfunded promises the state has made to pay retiree health benefits.
Now how to pay it? Answer: Money in the rainy day fund that voters approved just last month, Proposition 2.
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The following article appeared on the Washington Post website regarding a plan that would allow pension plans to cut retiree benefits. The California State Retirees is closely monitoring this legislation, and assessing the impact. We will keep our members apprised as new information becomes available. The article is presented below for your information. California State Retirees
The Washington Post -- A measure that would for the first time allow the benefits of current retirees to be severely cut is set to be attached to a massive spending bill, part of an effort to save some of the nation’s most distressed pension plans.
The rule would alter 40 years of federal law and could affect millions of workers, many of them part of a shrinking corps of middle-income employees in businesses such as trucking, construction and supermarkets.
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The ruling last week by a federal bankruptcy judge in Stockton’s bankruptcy case has caused many to speculate about the future of pensions. Public employees, retirees, employers, lawyers, taxpayers and journalists have legitimate questions and concerns (“Bankruptcy case should be a loud warning to cities,” Editorials, Oct. 3).
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San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed has revised the public employee pension ballot measure, tweaking its language to fend off opponents’ criticisms that the proposed constitutional amendment circumvents collective bargaining and guarantees proponents a payday in state-subsidized legal fees to defend the measure if the state attorney general declined to fight lawsuits that would certainly follow the its approval.
“In the last two or three weeks we’ve talked to a lot of people,” Reed said this morning in a telephone interview, including the legislative analyst staff and the attorney general’s office. “Some parts of our measure weren’t clear. So we’re trying to make it clear what our intentions are.”
Union opponents seized on the revision -- and a switch in the lineup of the measure’s proponents -- as a sign that the proposal is in trouble. Among other things, Reed’s proposal would change California’s constitution to allow public employee pensions to be lowered prospectively for current workers. A body of case law appears to make that illegal without another form of compensation to offset that loss.
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Governor signs CSR-endorsed bills
Gov. Brown signed five bills in October that are beneficial to senior citizens and supported by California State Retirees (CSR).
Of the 896 bills the Legislature sent the governor this year before adjourning in September, the governor signed 800 and vetoed 96, according to Ted Toppin, legislative advocate for CSR. The approved bills go into effect Jan. 1, 2014.
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The following PDF is a list of Bills that CSR is supporting, opposing, or watching.
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