Politics, Government and Business in Southern California's Inland Empire
By Ed Mendel
Monday, May 20, 2013
One of the first local ballot measures aimed at cutting public pension costs, a cap on Pacific Grove payments to CalPERS approved by voters three years ago, was ruled unconstitutional by a Monterey County superior court judge last week.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, May. 12, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Sunday, May. 12, 2013 – 7:33 am
There’s absolutely nothing wrong, per se, with incurring debt, whether it’s by families, businesses or governments. A functional credit market is absolutely vital to a modern economy.
Saturday, May 11, 2013 – 04:00 p.m.
Even though San Bernardino County is about to make a record annual payment of $172.5 million to its pension fund, there is a little bright light shining through.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, May. 9, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 7B
CalPERS says the insolvent city of San Bernardino has enough money to pay its past-due bill to the giant pension fund.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, May. 8, 2013 – 1:40 pm
Last Modified: Wednesday, May. 8, 2013 – 3:56 pm
Former CalPERS Chief Executive Fred Buenrostro pleaded innocent today to conspiracy charges in connection with the pension fund’s bribery scandal.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, May 6, 2013
Bankrupt San Bernardino’s new budget restarts CalPERS payments in July after skipping about $13 million in payments this fiscal year. But the next step in the city plan, getting CalPERS to refinance the unpaid bill, is a no-go at this point.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, April 29, 2013
With pensions presumably shored up by Gov. Brown’s reform and a CalPERS rate hike, will the problem-solving trend spread to what is, by some measures, an even bigger retirement debt: health care promised state workers?
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Apr. 28, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Sunday, Apr. 28, 2013 – 7:25 am
David Crane, a businessman who advised former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on financial matters – particularly long-term public pension deficits – recently wrote an I-told-you-so piece for the Bloomberg news service about the State Teachers Retirement System.
April 26, 2013; 05:35 PM
Riverside County’s public employee pension costs are expected to rise more than $20 million next fiscal year, but the long-term pension fund outlook is positive, a new report states.
To read story by Jeff Horseman in The Press Enterprise, click here.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Apr. 26, 2013 – 6:21 pm
Last Modified: Friday, Apr. 26, 2013 – 11:45 pm
CalPERS is back – sort of.
Slowly, sometimes painfully, America’s largest public pension fund has erased the nearly $97 billion worth of investment losses it suffered in the market crash. Its portfolio swelled to a record $261.7 billion Friday, surpassing the pre-crash high in 2007.
By Kevin G. Hall
McClatchy Newspapers
Published: Wednesday, Apr. 24, 2013 – 5:16 pm
Last Modified: Thursday, Apr. 25, 2013 – 3:45 am
WASHINGTON — As part of a new push to broaden the way economic growth is measured, government statisticians will soon begin using a new accounting method that’s likely to spotlight the problem of underfunded pension funds, particularly those managed by state and local governments across the nation.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, April 22, 2013
The question of whether pensions are “sustainable” may get an answer as a CalPERS board action last week ratchets up annual state and local pension costs during the next seven years.
By Daniel Borenstein, staff columnist
Posted: 04/19/2013 09:00:00 AM PDT
Updated: 04/21/2013 05:10:33 AM PDT
City officials try to have it both ways.
They blame their pension woes on the mighty California Public Employees’ Retirement System. But when CalPERS tries to do the right thing, as we just saw, cities drag their feet like petulant children.
By Ryan Hagen and Eric Bradley
Staff Writers
Posted: 04/17/2013 07:09:43 PM PDT
Updated: 04/17/2013 07:09:53 PM PDT
Many cities will be required to pay more to the state pension system for at least a few years because of changes the system’s board approved Wednesday, stretching its already-thin finances.
By Ed Mendel
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
A CalPERS committee yesterday approved raising employer rates roughly 50 percent over the next seven years, replacing actuarial methods that kept rates low during the recession with a new goal of full funding in 30 years.
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 04/16/2013 12:01:15 AM PDT
SAN BERNARDINO — There’s a lot more clarity, but still a scarcity of good news, the city’s financial consultant said Monday as he presented a proposed budget to the City Council.
By Michael B. Marois – Apr 15, 2013 9:00 PM PT
California taxpayers may see the municipal pension contributions they fund for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System rise as much as 50 percent under a plan to fill $87 billion in unfunded obligations.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, April 15, 2013
If not for pension and benefit increases as the stock market boomed more than a decade ago, CalSTRS would be one of the nation’s best-funded large retirement systems with 88 percent of the assets needed to pay promised pensions.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Apr. 14, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Sunday, Apr. 14, 2013 – 7:39 am
Eight years ago, the California Legislature and then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made what may have been a gigantic mistake by allowing public employee pension funds to drop a curtain of secrecy over their dealings with hedge funds, private equity funds and other “alternative investments.”
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 04/09/2013 05:56:46 PM PDT
Special Section: San Bernardino
RIVERSIDE — Nearly a year after filing for an emergency bankruptcy instead of passing a budget on time, the city will present a fiscal plan Monday that restarts payments to the country’s largest pension fund – payments it’s controversially skipped since August – its bankruptcy attorney said in court Tuesday.
By Daniel Borenstein, staff columnist
Posted: 04/05/2013 03:00:00 PM PDT
Updated: 04/07/2013 05:29:06 AM PDT
A bankruptcy judge’s ruling last week declaring the city of Stockton insolvent sets the stage for a possible legal showdown over whether financially destitute municipalities can alter employee pension benefits.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, April 8, 2013
While ruling Stockton eligible for bankruptcy last week, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein told losing bond insurer attorneys they can continue to pursue a cut in CalPERS debt, mentioning a rollback of pension “spiking.”
Posted by Joe Davidson on April 5, 2013 at 1:47 pm
President Obama is expected to propose $35 billion in federal retirement program savings in the fiscal year 2014 budget plan he will release Wednesday.
By Ryan Hagen
ryan.hagen@ inlandnewspapers.com @sbcitynow on Twitter
Posted: 04/04/2013 08:22:48 PM PDT
Special Section: San Bernardino
RIVERSIDE — Three labor unions’ attempt to sue San Bernardino over pay-cutting contracts the city imposed on them made little progress in bankruptcy court Thursday, but a judge seemed inclined to side mostly with the city on related procedural steps.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Apr. 5, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
At first blush, federal bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein appeared to give Stockton and its legal ally, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, a major victory this week.
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
Published: April 1, 2013
A federal bankruptcy judge ruled on Monday that the city of Stockton, Calif., was eligible for court protection from its creditors, clearing the way for a battle over whether public workers’ pensions can be cut when the city they work for goes bankrupt.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, April 1, 2013
If a federal judge rules today that Stockton is eligible for bankruptcy, bond insurers facing big losses may wonder if they should have taken a harder look at how the city’s CalPERS debt could be cut.
By Daniel Borenstein, staff columnist
Posted: 03/29/2013 04:00:00 PM PDT
Updated: 03/30/2013 03:56:56 PM PDT
That was then, this is now.
When Gov. Jerry Brown signed pension legislation last year, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System applauded the “comprehensive set of reforms.” Its board president, Rob Feckner, said they marked “a more secure era for public pensions.”
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, Mar. 26, 2013 – 12:00 am
Last Modified: Tuesday, Mar. 26, 2013 – 6:10 am
Ostensibly, the trial that opened Monday in a federal courtroom was about whether Stockton is eligible to file for bankruptcy.
But the real issue – what one attorney called “the 800-pound gorilla in the room” – is whether public employees’ pensions, long thought to be legally untouchable, could be reduced via bankruptcy.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, March 25, 2013
The CalPERS board last week tentatively approved an employer rate hike of roughly 50 percent over the next half dozen years, replacing a policy that kept rates low during the recession with a plan to reach full funding in 30 years.
By Ed Mendel | 03/21/13 1:00 AM PST
The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office yesterday recommended that the Legislature adopt a plan to fully fund CalSTRS in 30 years — an estimated cost of $4.5 billion a year, a hefty addition to current annual contributions totaling $5.7 billion.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, Mar. 21, 2013 – 12:00 am
Last Modified: Thursday, Mar. 21, 2013 – 7:48 am
Lawmakers began confronting a multibillion-dollar budget headache Wednesday that’s been looming for years: the funding gap at the state teachers’ pension fund.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, Mar. 19, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Tuesday, Mar. 19, 2013 – 8:20 am
It was the biggest scandal in CalPERS’ history, with allegations of top officials trading pension fund investments for junkets, jobs and other favors.
What made it a criminal case, prosecutors say, was a handful of phony letters.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, March 18, 2013
Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, an upset victor last fall in a new election process, has introduced a bill containing Gov. Brown’s stalled proposal to restructure the CalPERS board, adding financial expertise and loosening labor control.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, March 11, 2013
A nationwide study, including CalPERS and CalSTRS, projects that huge pension fund losses during the financial crisis will be offset over three decades by a wave of recently enacted cost-cutting reforms — but only if several things happen.
By Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times
March 8, 2013, 8:06 p.m.
SACRAMENTO—California unions, accustomed to getting their way in the Capitol, lost some ground last year when Gov. Jerry Brown pushed through the Legislature a series of public-pension cuts that affect their members.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, March 4, 2013
A federal judge suggested last week that pension cuts in the Stockton bankruptcy may not be a key issue until the city tries to negotiate a debt-cutting “plan of adjustment” with creditors, a step awaiting an eligibility ruling after a trial later this month.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, February 25, 2013
CalPERS last week gave some 1,575 local governments a small increase in their annual pension costs, one of the last rates kept low by unusual actuarial policies adopted after a $100 billion investment loss five years ago.
By Daniel Borenstein, staff columnist © 2013, Bay Area News Group
Posted: 02/22/2013 05:51:55 PM PST
Updated: 02/24/2013 10:12:36 AM PST
Moody’s Investor Services will soon unveil new pension standards that could peel away gimmicks used to hide the shocking size of government retirement debt.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013 – 10:00 a.m.
Here’s some news flowing across the transom this Wednesday morning.
No decision on San Bernardino County appeal
The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors did not reach a decision on whether or not to appeal a San Diego County Superior Court ruling dismissing most of a civil case the county filed against defendants San Bernardino Associated Governments, California Department of Transportation and city of Upland.
By Ed Mendel | 02/18/13 12:00 AM PST
Some still have hard feelings about what happened when CalSTRS, now deep in the red, had a brief funding surplus more than a decade ago: Teacher and state payments into the fund were cut, and retirement benefits were raised.
By Daniel Borenstein, Staff columnist
Posted: 02/08/2013 12:00:00 PM PST
Updated: 02/09/2013 05:49:07 PM PST
Gov. Jerry Brown’s claim that he balanced his proposed 2013-14 budget ignores that he’s driving the state teacher pension system deeper into debt by shortchanging it at least $4.5 billion.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 6B
CalSTRS reported higher investment returns this week, but the teachers’ pension system continues to grapple with an enormous long-term funding shortfall.
By Ed Mendel
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Annual state pension payments to CalPERS are expected to increase $200 million to a total of $4 billion in July. But the rate may go higher as the powerful pension board takes a new look at its risks and policies.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013 – 7:44 am
California’s giant public pension fund has been laboring for more than three years, without any luck, to recoup huge investment losses that it blames on Wall Street’s powerful credit-rating agencies.
It just got a huge assist.
Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
February 4, 2013
The trust fund that provides pensions to retired teachers has a $64 billion deficit and would need a $4.5 billion per year infusion of revenue to become fully solvent, according to a new internal study.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, Fenruary 4, 2013
A new report says CalSTRS needs $4.5 billion more a year to fully fund pensions over the next three decades, a 75 percent increase in the $6 billion total annual payments now being made by teachers, school districts and the state.
By Michael B. Marois – Jan 30, 2013 5:01 PM PT
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System was flooded last month with applications by government workers seeking to buy additional years of service that can be counted toward their pension when they retire.
By Ed Mendel
Thursday, January 31, 2013
As local governments scrambled to meet a Jan. 1 reform deadline for giving lower pensions to some new hires, a top target was a big increase bargained by police and firefighters during the last decade.
By Jon Ortiz
jortiz@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 – 7:32 am
Nearly a dozen state departments have allowed hundreds of employees to hold more than one job, confirming CalPERS officials’ claims that the practice is widespread, according to January state jobs data The Bee obtained.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Jan. 28, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System has reported – with no small elation – that it has recouped virtually all of the $95 billion in investment losses it sustained during the global financial crisis.
Bloomberg News
January 21, 2013, 6:53 p.m.
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System is poised to top a record $260 billion in assets, the market value it held before the global financial crisis wiped out more than a third of its wealth.
By Ed Mendel
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Bond insurers who want CalPERS to share the financial pain of the Stockton bankruptcy do not answer a key question in lengthy court filings: How would “bloated” and “overly rich” pensions be cut?
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 6B
Last Modified: Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013 – 8:28 am
Boosted by stocks and real estate, CalPERS’ investments bounced back strongly last year.
The big pension fund said Monday it earned a 13.3 percent profit on its portfolio in calendar 2012.
By Daniel Borenstein, staff columnist
Posted: 01/11/2013 02:00:00 PM PST
Updated: 01/12/2013 05:17:14 PM PST
By administrative fiat, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System has undermined a key anti-spiking provision of the new state pension law that Gov. Jerry Brown signed last summer.
By Craig Gustafson
Jan. 11, 2013 – 5:02 p.m.
The city’s budget continues to get squeezed with news that the voter-mandated switch from pensions to 401(k)s has pushed San Diego’s annual pension payment to $275 million for the coming fiscal year, an increase of $44 million from a year ago.
By Ed Mendel
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Gov. Brown pushed through legislation that cuts and caps public pensions for new employees, making a fix-it-to-save-it argument while bypassing the bargaining usually demanded by his labor allies for benefit changes.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013 – 11:00 a.m.
The news on the pension front for San Bernardino County is still not good.
It appears a newly-implemented pension formula for new employees will provide little near-term relief from escalating county contribution rates.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, December 25, 2012
RIVERSIDE — A federal judge last week rejected a CalPERS request to sue bankrupt San Bernardino for a growing unpaid bill, but gave preliminary support to the argument that the bill must be paid in full before the city can leave bankruptcy.
Saturday, December 22, 2012 – 08:30 a.m.
San Bernardino received a reprieve in U.S. Bankruptcy proceedings yesterday. Even though a temporary one.
A U.S. Bankruptcy Judge ruled the city, for the time being, can’t be sued for past due and ongoing obligations it owes its pension fund, the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS).
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/21/2012 12:08:19 PM PST
RIVERSIDE – San Bernardino scored a victory in bankruptcy court Friday, as Judge Meredith Jury refused a motion by CalPERS that would have allowed the pension giant to sue in state court for millions of dollars in payments the city has stopped making.
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/20/2012 09:36:57 PM PST
After months of trading increasingly sharp legal filings, a pitched battle between San Bernardino and the nation’s largest pension system will take place in bankruptcy court on Friday – with each warning that the other’s victory could mean defeat for the little guy all across the state.
December 20, 2012; 05:18 PM
The city of San Bernardino will face a crucial test in its request for bankruptcy protection Friday, Dec. 21, as it battles with its largest creditor over whether it qualifies for relief.
To read story by Imran Ghori in The Press Enterprise, click here.
By Ed Mendel
Thursday, December 20, 2012
CalPERS accuses San Bernardino of halting payments to the big pension fund in a plan to use bankruptcy to cut pensions owed workers. But the city says it’s simply unable to pay now and wants to work out a way to repay CalPERS over time.
By Jon Ortiz
jortiz@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
We expect government transparency. Wall Street loves the backroom deal.
On ever-shifting ground between them you’ll find public pension funds, unique government organs that pump hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars into private investments.
By Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/17/2012 07:36:35 PM PST
Special Section: San Bernardino
SAN BERNARDINO — The city is prepared for a major hearing in bankruptcy court Friday and strongly rejects claims by its top creditor that its bankruptcy is a “sham,” City Attorney James F. Penman said at Monday’s City Council meeting.
PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
December 17, 2012 | 4:58 pm
BushmasterAn investment made by the California teachers pension fund is coming under scrutiny because of its link to the manufacturer of the assault rifle used in the Connecticut elementary school massacre.
By Josh Richman
Monday, December 17th, 2012 at 5:42 pm in Bill Lockyer, Public safety.
California Treasurer Bill Lockyer wants the state’s gigantic public pension funds to divest themselves of investments in any firearm manufacturer that makes guns banned in California.
Tim Reid and Jim Christie, Reuters
Posted: 12/16/2012 03:31:33 PM PST
Special Section: San Bernardino
A high-stakes legal battle has intensified as the largest U.S. pension fund filed court papers denouncing the financially troubled city of San Bernardino for what it called a “sham” bankruptcy and accused the city of “criminal behavior” in withholding payments to the pension plan.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012 – 7:09 am
The bland bureaucracy that dispenses pension checks to half a million Californians has taken on a new identity: fierce and unyielding champion of government retirees.
Published: Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 6B
The insolvent city of San Bernardino warned of dire consequences if it’s forced to pay the millions it owes CalPERS.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 6B
Last Modified: Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012 – 9:31 am
CalPERS must now confront a powerful group of foes in its multimillion-dollar fight with bankrupt San Bernardino: the city’s bondholders.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, December 10, 2012
Illinois state pension systems are the worst-funded in the nation — called a “crisis” by the governor, “unfixable” by a Chicago business group — and they share a problem with CalSTRS: years of deliberate underfunding.
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/04/2012 06:42:30 PM PST
The judge handling San Bernardino’s bankruptcy likely will not lift a stay so CalPERS can sue over missed pension payments, several attorneys studying the legal battle predicted Tuesday.
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 11/29/2012 08:07:12 PM PST
Special Section: San Bernardino
SAN BERNARDINO – In a city where nearly every important decision divides officials into two camps, one goal has the passionate support of nearly every policy-maker: Get the court to approve bankruptcy protection.
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