Tag "Ed Mendel"
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Gov. Brown’s pension plan gets mixed reviews from reformers
SACRAMENTO – Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature mostly have avoided tackling the state’s unfunded pension liabilities, even though these taxpayer-backed debts to pay for pension promises to state and local employees have soared by 22 percent in the last
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CalPERS board accused of bullying, deceit, flouting laws
A member of the CalPERS board has gone rogue, using public records laws to get documents from the agency while facing warnings that it is unacceptable for him to criticize staff at board meetings. Ed Mendel has details at Calpensions.com:
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’13th checks’ scrapped in San Jose pension deal
In June 2012, San Jose voters by a more than 2-to-1 margin approved an ambitious pension reform measure meant to bring down long-term costs of retirement benefits for city employees. The night of the election, the San Jose police union
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Change in accounting rule forces governments to disclose liabilities
State and local governments will no longer be allowed to hide the true costs of the long-term benefits provided to government workers. A recent change by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, known simply by the acronym GASB, forces government bodies
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School districts seek help with pension bailout costs
The bailout of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System enacted last year requires a 70 percent increase in pension contributions from school districts, a 20 percent increase from the state general fund and a 10 percent increase in teacher contributions.
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Ruling on pension bonuses shows obstacles to CA reform
Providing bonus checks to government retirees when pension funds have good years has long been common and controversial around California. Now an appellate court has ruled this policy is a vested benefit that can’t be ended by formal action of
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Stockton ruling, like Vergara ruling, shakes CA status quo
Californians who think the state status quo is nuts and that public employees amount to a protected class of citizens have gotten unexpected help this year from the state and federal courts. First came Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf
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State finances: LAO’s own report on CalSTRS demolishes LAO’s happy talk
I’m still struggling to make sense of Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor’s bizarrely upbeat report last month on state finances that predicted budget surpluses for years to come — but barely mentioned the state’s huge unfunded liabilities for retiree pensions and
Read MoreCA Dem lawmakers figuring out something rotten in CalPERS
March 19, 2013 By Chris Reed On Monday, the day that finally saw criminal charges filed over CalPERS’ brazen pay-to-play bribery scheme, there were signs that some Democratic state lawmakers finally are figuring out that believing California’s pension status quo
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