Posted May 15, 2012 by
State Economy
State Employees
Like his predecessor, Gov. Jerry Brown moved to trim state worker salaries Monday as a way to help cut a ballooning budget deficit.
Although many of the details still need to be hammered out with the unions, Brown proposed that workers lose a day's pay each month in a move that evoked memories of furlough days under former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Under Brown's plan, state workers would switch to a four-day workweek, working 9.5 hours a day, or 38 hours a week, instead of the current five-day, 40-hour workweek. The change would cut workers' pay by 5 percent, saving the state $401 million in general fund costs.
Administration officials said they also expect to save money by closing buildings one day a week.
For weeks, the Brown administration has been talking to labor leaders about wringing savings from payroll. Brown did not say Monday whether union leaders had specifically suggested the shorter workweek but did say those discussions were considered in shaping the policy.
[Read More...]
Posted Apr 18, 2012 by
CalPERS
Retirees
State Economy
Retirement
The line at CalPERS' customer service window is getting longer.
After converting to a half-billion-dollar computer system to process benefits for hundreds of thousands of California public agency retirees last September, backlogs for some services are worse than before the project launched.
The new hardware and software installed by New York-based tech firm Accenture aimed to consolidate 49 old data systems into one when it launched last September, two years late at nearly twice its original $279 million budget. The California Public Employees' Retirement System committed another $6.8 million in December, bringing the total cost to $514 million. The money has come from CalPERS assets, currently valued at $234 billion.
Meanwhile, fund members have complained that a system intended to speed up service and boost efficiency has done the opposite.
[Read More...]
Posted Apr 11, 2012 by
General News
Legislation
Retirement
SANTA ROSA — A two-house legislative committee is working with Gov. Brown’s Department of Finance on a ‘hybrid’ retirement plan for new state and local government hires, a committee member told a forum here last week.
Assemblyman Michael Allen, D-Santa Rosa, twice referred to a “cash balance” plan while talking about a cost-cutting hybrid, proposed by Brown, that combines a lower pension with a 401(k)-style individual investment plan.
[Read More...]
Posted Apr 04, 2012 by
CalPERS
Retirement
A new study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office provides additional insight into the challenges facing not only California’s pension system, but also public pensions across the country.
[Read More...]
Posted Mar 19, 2012 by
CalPERS
Retirees
Politics
When the city manager of troubled Stockton, Calif., had to tell city council members why it was on track to become the biggest American city yet to go bankrupt, it took hours to get through the list.
There was the free health care for retirees, the unpaid parking tickets, the revenue bonds without enough revenue to pay them. On it went, a grim drumbeat of practically every fiscal malady imaginable, except an obvious one: municipal pensions. Stockton is spending some $30 million a year to pay for them, but it has less than 70 cents set aside for every dollar of benefits its workers expect.
[Read More...]
Posted Feb 09, 2012 by
CalPERS
Politics
Retirement
The cause of pension reform in California took a significant body shot Wednesday when a group hoping to put an overhaul measure before voters this year suspended its campaign.
Beleaguered by fundraising problems and questions about the viability of its proposals, California Pension Reform shut down its efforts. The group's officials blamed the demise on a "false and misleading" summary of the plan by Attorney General Kamala Harris, a charge the Democrat denied.
The death of California Pension Reform's efforts also wounded Gov. Jerry Brown's pension proposals to the Democratic-controlled Legislature, one analyst said, by removing the threat of a more draconian measure going before voters.
[Read More...]
Posted Nov 22, 2011 by
Retirees
Health Care
State Economy
Health benefits for government retirees may not be eliminated if state and local governments had clearly promised workers those benefits, the California Supreme Court ruled in an Orange County case Monday.
[Read More...]
Posted Oct 06, 2011 by
CalPERS
Retirees
State Economy
Retirement
Approximately half of California workers will retire in or near poverty, according to a study published Monday by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. [Read More...]
Posted Oct 06, 2011 by
CalPERS
Retirees
Retirement
State Employees
A new study by the Center for Retirement Research and Boston College refutes the notion that state and local government workers as a group end up a lot richer than their private sector counterparts. [Read More...]
Posted Oct 05, 2011 by
CalPERS
Retirees
Health Care
The time for CalPERS members to make changes to their health plan or add eligible family members begins Oct. 10 and continues through Nov. 4. In mid-August, CalPERS Open Enrollment packets were mailed to eligible members. [Read More...]
Posted Oct 05, 2011 by
Retirees
Retirement
California’s largest state retiree organization
has
a new name and a new attitude about
standing
up to public pension critics [Read More...]
Posted Oct 04, 2011 by
CalPERS
General News
State Economy
Retirement
Nearly half of California workers will retire in or near poverty, shows a new study released by the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education, "California Workers’ Retirement Prospects."
While retirement security is and will be a problem in the whole of the nation, the situation is worse in California, because California workers have less access to employer retirement plans than workers in the United States as a whole, according to the study authors.
[Read More...]
Posted Sep 28, 2011 by
Legislation
Politics
Retirement
Faced with a growing pension burden, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council moved this summer to freeze the amount of healthcare benefits given to thousands of police and firefighters once they retire. Those benefits would not increase in coming years, Villaraigosa said, unless employees contribute more toward retirement from their paychecks. [Read More...]
Posted Sep 09, 2011 by
CalPERS
Retirees
CalPERS Sept. 7, 2011 -- CalPERS is consolidating 49 different computer systems into one new integrated system this September. This new system will streamline many CalPERS processes as well as decrease dependency on paper documents. New member self-service capabilities will be introduced in 2012.
[Read More...]
Posted Sep 09, 2011 by
CalPERS
Retirees
Retirement
CalPERS, Sept. 9, 2011
On November 4, 2011, the CalPERS Office of Stakeholder Relations will host a second Northern California recruitment meeting to identify CalPERS beneficiaries for the CalPERS Ambassador Program. The November 4 meeting is a repeat of the popular kick-off meeting held in Sacramento on May 26.
[Read More...]
Posted Sep 09, 2011 by
Retirees
Legislation
Retirement
Sacramento Bee Sept. 8, 2011 --Lawmakers essentially threw in the towel Thursday on comprehensive public pension reform - at least for now.
With this year's legislative session scheduled to end at midnight today, the Assembly voted 51-21 to approve a last-minute bill declaring its commitment to pension reform but conceding that more time is needed.
[Read More...]
Posted Jul 18, 2011 by
CalPERS
Retirees
General News
State Economy
Retirement
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) July 18 reported a 20.7 percent return on investments in preliminary estimates for the one-year period that ended June 30, 2011.
“This is our best annual performance in 14 years,” said Rob Feckner, CalPERS Board President. “For the second straight fiscal year, the Pension Fund exceeded its long-term annualized earnings target [Read More...]
Posted Jul 13, 2011 by
CalPERS
Retirees
General News
State Economy
State Employees
CalPERS benefit payments rippled through the California economy last year, generating $26 billion in economic activity and supporting more than 93,600 jobs across the state, Anne Stausboll, Chief Executive Officer of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, told a Washington, D.C., conference today.
[Read More...]
Posted Jul 13, 2011 by
CalPERS
Retirees
State Economy
Retirement
Benefit payments in 2010 by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension, spurred more than $26 billion in economic activity in the state, the fund said in a report.
[Read More...]
Posted Jul 13, 2011 by
CalPERS
Retirees
General News
Retirement
CalPERS Board run-off election candidates, Michael Bilbrey and Richard Ross, participated in a candidate forum sponsored by PERSwatch on July 6, 2011. A video of the forum is now available for viewing online via YouTube. Ballot packages for the run-off election were mailed to eligible voters on June 30, 2011.
[Read More...]