Problems With California State Pension Plans

[discocrisco01]

Source: San Jose Mercury New

As California school districts anticipate possibly the worst budget crisis in a generation, many will try to lighten their burden by enticing older teachers into retirement. But as more and more teachers retire -- with a pension averaging 55 percent to 60 percent of salary -- they will be straining a system that already can't meet its obligations.

The California State Teachers' Retirement System is sliding down a steep slope toward insolvency. The threat isn't to teachers who have retired or plan to, but to the people of California. Taxpayers, who already pick up 23 percent of CalSTRS expenses, will be increasingly burdened as the giant pension system fails to meet its obligations.

"We're on a path of destruction," said Marcia Fritz, president of pension-reform group California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility.

And merely rejiggering formulas for new employees won't rescue the system, she said. Simply put: "We overpromised

Read more at http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_17446295

[Starry Messenger]

1. Problems stemming from the RW brainiacs.

http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/pension-283709-elected-officials.html

The California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, in partnership with the free-market think tank Pacific Research Institute, Governing Magazine and the Independent Voter Network, will host the daylong, intensive training program in Orange County on Feb. 17. Local elected officials can register at www.californiapensionreform.org.


We hope the sessions address one of the most common excuses we hear from local elected officials about pension reform: that their hands are tied by state laws or that they do not have the tools at their disposal to rapidly and radically overhaul unsustainably generous pension benefits for unionized government workers.

The idea of offering training on pension reform is the brainchild of Scott Baugh, a former state assemblyman and the current leader of the Orange County Republican Party. Mr. Baugh essentially declared war last year on the influence of public employee unions over politicians with his "Baugh Manifesto," which called on all elected officials not to accept political contributions from such unions.

Marcia Fritz, president of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, a nonpartisan advocacy organization based in Citrus Heights and focusing on, among other things, pension reform, is leading the conference. She says the goal is to "arm elected officials with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions in attempts to lower the costs of government service," and, she added, "pension costs are the best place to start."

More RW pension raiding and free-market BS.

[CreekDog]

3. good catch

:hi:

[Starry Messenger]

4. After years here we can practically smell them.

The name had that Jarvis ring to it. :D

[msongs]

2. nice right wing hit piece passing itself off as a news story. got anything else like it? nt

[leftstreet]

5. WTF is "rejiggering" ?? Going back for an extra shot in your drink?

unRec for Propaganda fail

[XemaSab]

6. Why aren't California state employees

getting social security?