Pension Reform

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CalPERS just called me

At 11:27 am, according to my cell, I got a call from CalPERS, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. At first I thought it was about some news story I had done. I’ve talked to them before. Then the woman

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Why is CalSTRS’ version of corporate skulduggery tolerated?

Beginning in the late 1990s and for about a decade afterward, corporate accounting scandals unfolded one after the other. Bipartisan outrage over CEOs and CFOs cooking the books gave way to mostly Democratic initiatives to impose much more sweeping rules

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Judge confirms the ‘California rule’: Pensions can only go up

A state judge on Monday did a split-the-baby routine with San Jose’s voter-approved pension-reform law: “SAN JOSE — In a landmark ruling that could help shape city budgets around the state, a judge invalidated key parts of San Jose’s voter-approved

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CalSTRS hearing underscores Mac Taylor’s destructive happy talk

An Assembly committee hearing Wednesday on the immense underfunding problems facing the California State Teachers’ Retirement System also illuminated another strange problem in Sacramento: the emergence of Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor as a civic arsonist. As John Myers reported, one

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CalPERS rate hike slams cities

Californians are finding out how Gov. Jerry Brown is going to deal with the state’s pension crisis: make the taxpayers pay for it. This from CalPensions: A divided CalPERS board yesterday approved a faster rate hike for the state urged

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Graphic shows pension reform ideas

The site Accounting Review has come up with a neat graphic that describes America’s pension crisis, and some possible alternatives: Source: Accounting-Degree.org

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Latest scandal: Why you would be nuts to believe CalPERS

The Sacramento Bee has the basic details on a new CalPERS contretemps: “A former CalPERS employee who alleged she was fired for challenging a cover up of insider trades by fund staff settled her wrongful termination case this morning. “Jeannine

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Life expectancy gains: new front in CA pension funding woes

Daniel Borenstein of the Bay Area Newspaper Group had a sharp column Sunday pointing out that delays in acknowledging gains in life expectancy added to the long-term funding problems faced by CalPERS. “The mortality issue exemplifies how CalPERS has set

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San Diego's pension reform model finally inspires copy-cats

In early 2012, when then-San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio was pushing an innovative, unusual, unprecedented pension reform initiative in California's second-largest city, I wrote about it for City Journal. I thought it was a harbinger of what the future would

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Brown: No teachers' pension fix until after November election

Gov. Jerry Brown has a basic problem when it comes to the California State Teachers' Retirement System: the most powerful forces in state politics oppose the standard fix for an underfunded pension system, even if it is now enshrined in

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