Politics, Government & Business in California's Inland Empire
By Romy Varghese
May 14, 2018 – 8:30 AM PDT
As California’s cities flounder under the rising cost of public pensions, they shouldn’t expect the state to extend a hand.
By Dan Walters | Feb. 21, 2018 | Commentary
The essence of California’s pension crisis was on display last week when the California Public Employees Retirement System made a relatively small change in its amortization policy.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, February 12, 2018
The use of the word “unsustainable” had a distant echo this month as the League of California Cities issued a study of CalPERS rates, a move to get stronger local options for controlling rising pension costs.
By Dan Walters | Feb. 4, 2018 | Commentary
From one end of California to the other, hundreds of cities are facing a tsunami of pension costs that officials say is forcing them to reduce vital services and could drive some—perhaps many—into functional insolvency or even bankruptcy.
By John Myers
Feb. 1, 2018 – 3:53 p.m.
Citing limited options for raising local taxes, the association representing hundreds of California cities warned that rising public employee pension costs might mean fewer services and longer emergency response times over the next several years.
By Adam Ashton
aashton@sacbee.com
January 12, 2018 12:25 PM
Gov. Jerry Brown this week predicted that his 2012 pension law will survive union challenges in court and blow a hole in the so-called “California rule” that has restricted changes to public employee retirement plans for half a century.
Credit: Associated Press
By Associated Press
Thursday, December 28, 2017
For decades in California, a sacrosanct rule has governed public employees’ pensions: Benefits promised can never be taken away.
Tuesday, December 19, 2017 – 11:30 p.m.
It’s a not so Merry Christmas for the San Bernardino County, California pension system, which took another hit in its latest fiscal year.
The State Worker
Chronicling civil-service life for California state workers
By Adam Ashton
aashton@sacbee.com
November 22, 2017 – 09:48 AM
Gov. Jerry Brown got most of what he wanted when he carried a proposal to shore up the state’s underfunded public employee pension plans by trimming benefits for new workers.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
May 28, 2017 – 12:01 AM
California’s rapidly growing public employee retirement costs weigh heavily on the 2017-18 state budget now being fashioned, but their impact is only partially revealed in budget documents.
Ed Mendel
May 8, 2017
Long-delayed legislation is more than doubling the CalSTRS rates paid by school districts and the state. But even if the all-important pension fund investment earnings are on target, the huge CalSTRS debt is expected to continue to grow for another decade.
Observations on California and its politics
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
May 02, 2017 – 5:10 PM
Throughout California, local government and school district officials are writing new budgets and confronting rapidly rising costs of pensions.
The State Worker
Chronicling civil-service life for California state workers
By Adam Ashton
aashton@sacbee.com
April 25, 2017 – 7:00 AM
Public employee unions presented a united front on Monday against a bill by Sen. John Moorlach that aimed to close California’s pension funding gap by eliminating cost-of-living increases and asking local governments to chip in a greater share of their revenue toward retirements.
Ed Mendel
April 17, 2016
In another ruling allowing pension cuts, an appeals court last week overturned a state labor board ruling that a voter-approved San Diego pension reform was invalid because the city declined to bargain the issue with labor unions.
Capitol Alert
By Adam Ashton
aashton@sacbee.com
March 7, 2017 – 4:41 PM
For the second time in four months, CalPERS is preparing to slash benefits for a group of retirees whose former employer stopped cutting checks to fund their pensions.
Saturday, February 25, 2017 – 04:30 p.m.
The Trump stock market rally, which, according to the numbers, has added more that $2 trillion in value to market capitalization, is also helping the San Bernardino County, California pension fund.
By Adam Ashton and Phillip Reese
aashton@sacbee.com
February 12, 2017 – 12:01 AM
On the eve of major pension changes that would crimp retirement benefits for new hires, a handful of California government agencies went on a holiday hiring spree.
Business & Real Estate
By Adam Ashton
aashton@sacbee.com
February 1, 2017 – 5:50 PM
The fund that manages pensions for California teachers on Wednesday voted to lower its investment forecast by half a percentage point, a decision that will have many educators stepping up their payroll contributions for their retirement plans by several hundred dollars a year.
By Ed Mendel
January 30, 3016
The two big state pension funds have been on very different paths since both had large surpluses in 2000. But they will have identical funding levels if CalSTRS, like CalPERS last month, adopts a recommended lower investment earnings forecast this week.
The Public Eye
By Brad Branan
bbranan@sacbee.com
January 21, 2017 – 1:17 PM
In South Lake Tahoe, roads are crumbling, and the city is struggling to find ways to repair years of damage caused by harsh weather and snowplows. Orangevale residents worry that fire crews won’t arrive quickly enough in an emergency after their local fire station was closed during the recession.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, January 17, 2017
State payments to CalPERS next fiscal year are expected to total $6 billion, nearly double the $3.2 billion paid six years ago before a wave of employer rate increases.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
January 2, 2017 – 12:01 AM
It’s very rare, but always welcome, when reality intrudes on political decision making.
By John Myers
Dec. 21, 2016
In the four years since California’s largest pension fund recalibrated its investment projections, the annual contribution from state and local governments — in effect, the money paid by taxpayers — has slowly been on the rise.
By Dale Kasler
Business & Real Estate
dkasler@sacbee.com
December 20, 2016 – 5:17 PM
The cost of that government pension is about to go up again, for California taxpayers as well as some public employees.
Monday, November 28, 2016 – 12:15 p.m.
The pension system for San Bernardino County, California, took another hit in its latest fiscal year.
By Ed Mendel
November 28, 2016
The state Supreme Court last week agreed to hear an appeal of a groundbreaking ruling that allows cuts in the pensions earned by current state and local government workers, including judges.
Maura Dolan
November 22, 2016
The California Supreme Court decided Tuesday to review a ruling that would give state and local governments new authority to cut public employee pensions.
Ed Mendel
November 21, 2016
The state’s two largest public pension systems never recovered from huge investment losses during the deep recession and stock market crash in 2008. CalPERS lost about $100 billion and CalSTRS about $68 billion.
Joseph Turner
Saturday, October 15, 2016 – 5:50 p.m.
Well, it is election season and that means one thing! You better have a solid pair of boots so you can wade through all the bullshit.
Supervisor Robert Lovingood mailed out a hit piece on Angela Valles today. It is filled with outright lies and distortions about her record. You can view the mailer here. Before I dissect it, it is worth pointing out one thing.
It is tough for Lovingood to run on a record that includes the sexual abuse and deaths of neglected children in the county foster system, the cover up of a prostitution scandal, and a pension system that is underfunded by $2 billion dollars. When you don’t have a record of accomplishment as an incumbent you have to lie about your opponent. It is pathetic.
By Ed Mendel
October 10, 2016
Three appeals court justices, citing the alarming view of critics that unaffordable public pensions are headed for the financial cliff, looked for a new way to allow a change in direction and found one.
Sophia Bollag and Samantha Masunaga
September 29, 2016
Nearly 7 million workers for California companies will be automatically enrolled in a new state-run retirement program under a bill signed Thursday by Gov. Jerry Brown.
John Myers
Sept. 20, 2016 – 2:47 p.m.
The retiring forecaster for California’s largest public employee pension fund offered some final advice on Tuesday: State and local governments should be required to pay more into the system as soon as next year.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
September 11, 2016 – 4:00 AM
The “unfunded liabilities” of state and local pension funds are California’s biggest unresolved political issue – at least in financial terms.
Ed Mendel
August 22, 2016
The one thing some pension reformers say is needed to cut the cost of unaffordable public pensions: give current workers a less costly retirement benefit for work done in the future, while protecting pension amounts already earned.
Ed Mendel
August 15, 2016
Two actuarial associations did not publish a controversial paper by their joint task force, reflecting a split in the profession over whether public pension debt should be measured with risk-free bonds or the earnings forecast for stock-laden investment funds.
Tuesday, August 9, 2016 – 12:00 p.m.
I just sent an email to Staff Writer Teri Sforza at The Orange County Register regarding her article on the “Top 25 Public Pensions” in California, published Tuesday.
Her story mysteriously omitted San Bernardino County pension data.
By Alicia Robinson, The Press-Enterprise
Posted: 08/08/16 – 7:54 PM PDT |
High-earning state and local government retirees are scattered around the state, with no one city or agency dominating the list of the biggest pension payouts in 2015, data from an open records advocacy group show.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
August 7, 2016 – 4:46 PM
When Kevin de León talks about creating pensions for low-income workers, he cites his aunt, a housekeeper for many years, as an example.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
August 1, 2016 – 6:00 AM
Ron Seeling, the California Public Employees Retirement System’s chief actuary, believed he was speaking to a closed-door seminar in 2009 when he warned that public employee pension costs were becoming “unsustainable.”
By Ed Mendel
Monday, August 1, 2016
Twice in recent decades CalPERS fell below 100 percent of the funding needed for promised pensions, and twice CalPERS climbed back. But since a $100 billion investment loss in 2008, the CalPERS funding level has not recovered.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
July 23, 2016 – 2:00 PM
One day last week, Daniel Borenstein, a columnist for newspapers in the Bay Area News Group, published a critical analysis of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s long-term finances.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
July 18, 2016 – 4:03 PM
You can smear lipstick on a pig, but that doesn’t change its innate porcinity.
Business & Real Estate
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
July 18, 2016 – 9:11 AM
CalPERS reported a 0.61 percent gain in investments in its latest fiscal year, the second straight year of subpar results for the big California pension fund.
By Teri Sforza / Staff Writer
July 12, 2016 – Updated 7:37 a.m.
Public workers are pumping more money into retirement funds. Public agencies are pumping more money into retirement funds.
Yet the market seems distinctly unimpressed.
Tuesday, June 28, 2016 – 09:00 a.m.
San Bernardino County is set to approve a $203 million payment to its pension fund on Tuesday.
Surprisingly it’s an amount that’s lower than last year.
Thursday, June 16, 2016 – 12:00 p.m.
You know things are getting tough when a pension fund starts mentioning its 30-year average average return in its investment reports.
By Teri Sforza / Staff Columnist
tsforza@ocregister.com
May 23, 2016 – Updated: 6:36 a.m.
So if you don’t live in Irwindale, rejoice: There, even when you look at it through rose-colored glasses, public pension liabilities equal $32,447 for each and every household in the city.
By Ed Mendel
May 23, 2016
Annual rates paid by employers to CalPERS and CalSTRS are going up, pension funding levels haven’t recovered from a big drop during the recession, and Gov. Brown’s pension reform put a lid on pension increases.
Saturday, May 21, 2016 – 01:00 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, May 23, 2016 – 08:45 a.m.
Hats off to San Bernardino County First District Supervisor Robert Lovingood for doubling-down on his fantasy pension crack down spin.
Thursday, May 19, 2016 – 08:45 a.m.
San Bernardino County First District Supervisor Robert Lovingood is living in a fantasy land.
That’s at least when it comes to the county’s pension fund.
Monday, May 2 , 2016 – 12:00 p.m.
It’s time for the San Bernardino County Employees Retirement Association (SBCERA) to face reality regarding what it will make on investments in the future.
By Ed Mendel
May 2, 2016
After reaching agreements with all major creditors, San Bernardino is moving toward an exit from a four-year bankruptcy this fall without cutting public pensions, its largest and rapidly growing debt.
By Joe Nelson, The Sun
Posted: 04/29/16, 10:52 PM PDT |
Roughly 9,000 members and beneficiaries of the San Bernardino County Employees’ Retirement Association have experienced a delay in receiving their April benefit payments due to a clerical error, the organization’s spokesman said Friday.
Business & Real Estate
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
April 20, 2016 – 5:18 PM
CalPERS approved another round of rate increases Thursday, requiring higher contributions from state agencies and school districts for the 2016-17 fiscal year.
Published: April 13, 2016 – 8:09 a.m.
Puerto Rico, Atlantic City and Chicago school district bondholders have reason to fear a fight in court if the ailing governments collapse financially: recent cases show that when municipalities go broke, investors lose when pitted against municipal retirees.
To read article in The Press-Enterprise, click here.
Ed Mendel
April 14, 2016
CalPERS actuaries recommend that the annual state payment for state worker pensions increase $602 million in the new fiscal year to $5.35 billion, nearly doubling the $2.7 billion paid a decade ago before the recession and a huge investment loss.
Ed Mendel
April 11, 2016
Gov. Brown’s plan to reduce state worker retiree health care costs got only a small nod in a tentative CSU faculty contract agreement last week. But three unions have agreed to begin paying down one of the state’s fastest-growing costs and largest debts.
By Patrick McGreevy
April 10, 2016
Republican state Sen. John Moorlach of Costa Mesa has emerged as a leading voice in the Legislature against skyrocketing debt piled up by public pension systems.
By Ed Mendel
March 28, 2016
Following new accounting rules, the annual state financial report issued this month shows a “net pension liability” of $63.7 billion, a dramatic increase from the $3.2 billion “net pension obligation” reported last year.
By Ed Mendel
March 21, 2016
Social Security recipients get no raise this year because inflation last year was near zero. But more than half of CalPERS pensions will get a raise in May of 1.5 to 4 percent.
Capitol Alert
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
March 18, 2016 12:07 PM
Although its 2014-15 budget was balanced, California’s state government ended the fiscal year $175.1 billion in the red, thanks largely to state retirement obligations that had to be included in its balance sheet for the first time.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
March 15, 2016 – 4:15 PM
Thanks to new accounting standards, California’s state and local governments are being forced to acknowledge tens of billions of dollars in previously obscure debt for unfunded pension liabilities.
Sarah D. Wire
March 11, 2016
A recent study shows nearly half of California workers don’t have a retirement savings plan available at work, and the U.S. Treasury Department is hoping a new no fee, no minimum deposit retirement saving program will fill the gap.
By Ed Mendel
February 29, 2016
A superior court judge has awarded judges back pay and a pension increase, ruling that a five-year freeze on their salary did not keep pace with average increases in state worker pay, a requirement under state law.
By Melody Gutierrez
February 6, 2016
Updated: February 6, 2016 – 2:53pm
SACRAMENTO — California has come a long way to dig itself out of budget deficits, but the state remains on shaky ground due to nearly $400 billion in unfunded liabilities and debt from public pensions, retiree health care and bonds, financial analysts say.
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By Daniel Borenstein
dborenstein@bayareanewsgroup.com
Posted: 02/04/2016 06:00:00 PM PST
Updated: 02/04/2016 09:14:06 PM PST
Two years ago, Gov. Jerry Brown pushed through a 32-year plan to shore up the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.
Thursday, January 21, 2016 – 09:30 a.m.
San Bernardino County’s pension fund, San Bernardino County Employees Retirement Association (SBCERA), will pay out a 2% across-the-board cost of living (COLA) adjustment effective April 1, 2016.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
January 19, 2016 3:42 PM
With no thought to long-term financial consequences, California politicians, both state and local, have saddled taxpayers with hundreds of billions of dollars in debt for pensions and retiree health care.
Associated Press
Posted: 01/18/2016 – 10:51:49 PM PST
Updated: 01/18/2016 – 10:52:19 PM PST
SACRAMENTO — The California budget that Gov. Jerry Brown proposed this month marks a shocking financial turnaround for a state that just a few years ago faced a $26 billion deficit.
By Ryan Hagen, The Sun
Posted: 01/05/16 – 5:46 PM PST |
SAN BERNARDINO >> Unlike every other retiree in this and other bankrupt California cities, 23 retired San Bernardino police officers would lose part of their pension in the city’s bankruptcy plan — and they’re going public with their opposition to those cuts.
Lisa Mascaro
December 17, 2015
By approving a massive package of tax breaks Thursday, House Republicans — who have made deficit-slashing the holy grail of their majority — just piled on nearly $650 billion in red ink.
By Jon Ortiz
jortiz@sacbee.com
December 10, 2015
California moved one step closer to a public retirement fight after the state issued official summaries for two pension-change ballot proposals on Thursday – and for the first time neither labor unions nor the measures’ proponents griped that the language was politically slanted or inaccurate.
By Dan Walters
walters@sacbee.com
December 5, 2015
California has long prided itself on having an upwardly mobile, egalitarian gestalt, so there’s much irony in its evolution into a two-tiered society.
Saturday, November 28, 2015 – 11:00 a.m.
Even though San Bernardino County, California has been ponying up tens of millions of dollars more in annual pension contributions each of the past several years, the funding situation hasn’t significantly changed.
Monday, November 23, 2015 – 09:00 a.m.
Not that I agree with California Governor Jerry Brown on much.
But he’s correct regarding the fix to the under-funding problem affecting the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS).
John Myers
November 19, 2015
If there is one thing that Gov. Jerry Brown has made a calling card since returning to office in 2011, it’s a push toward paying down government debt.
Melody Petersen
November 18, 2015
The board of California’s largest public pension fund approved a plan Wednesday to lower its estimate of future investment returns — a move that will require taxpayers to pay billions of dollars more than expected over the next decades.
Melody Petersen
Novembe 17, 2015
Experts have warned for years that the state’s largest public pension plan has overestimated how much its investments will earn, leaving taxpayers to pay billions of dollars more than expected.
Thursday, November 5, 2015 – 09:00 a.m.
If San Bernardino County leaders want a reason to push back at union demands for salary and benefit increases they now have it.
Business & Real Estate
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
October 12, 2015
CalPERS is about to roll out an unusual new investment policy that could reduce risks but also lower its portfolio’s profitability.
Published: Oct. 6, 2015 – 8:55 a.m.
It pays to retire from an Inland Southern California government job, an open-records advocacy group says.
Many retired Inland public employees receive pensions far exceeding the typical full-time Inland worker’s annual salary, according to a study released today by Transparent California, which has ties to a conservative think tank. But some critics took issues with the group’s findings, saying the math was skewed to reflect the group’s anti-union stance.
To read article by Jeff Horseman in The Press-Enterprise, click here.
By Melody Petersen
August 30, 2015
California taxpayers have never paid more for public worker pensions, but it’s still not enough to cover the rising number of retirement checks written by the state’s largest pension plan.
By Ed Mendel
August 24, 2015
CalPERS took another step last week toward a gradual long-term rate hike, a move to lower the risk of big investment losses as the maturing pension system enters a new era.
Monday, August 17, 2015 – 05:00 p.m.
The Lou Desmond and Company Show is broadcasting from the Toyota of San Bernardino Recording Studios!
On the show today, Estimable Economist Jay Prag joins Lou on the show. First, NPR featured a story about children in San Bernardino who grow up in motels described as “meth addict summer camp.” What do stories like these do for the city’s image?
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
August 13, 2015
Kamala Harris is not only California’s attorney general, but a very ambitious politician who hopes to become a U.S. senator.