Tag "pensions"

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Report bolsters governor’s call for budget caution

With the June 15 deadline to finalize the 2016-17 state budget looming, Gov. Jerry Brown continues to push back at Democratic lawmakers’ call for him to revise his $123 billion spending plan to include new or expanded spending on social

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Finance Department urges CalPERS to reduce risk

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System is considering reducing its investment risk with a plan that would be so ineffectual it could lead to a “rate shock” when the pension bills come due, according to the California Department of Finance.

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Campaign 2016: Bipartisan group files pension reform initiative

The battle over California’s out-of-control public employee pensions could soon move from the courtroom to the ballot box. A bipartisan group of pension reform advocates, led by former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and former San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio, recently filed a

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Budget reflects truce in Brown-Napolitano fight over UC

For eight months, the most high-profile political fight in Sacramento has been between Gov. Jerry Brown and University of California President Janet Napolitano, triggered by Napolitano’s attempts to pressure Brown and the Legislature to increase funding for the UC system.

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Big UC changes may come from private ‘Committee of Two’ meetings 

Ironically, in the midst of Sunshine Week, designed to create more open government and freedom of information, the “Committee of Two” considering the financial situation of the UC system – Gov. Jerry Brown and University of California President Janet Napolitano – are

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Worst-case scenarios for CalSTRS and CalPERS

Sometimes it’s good to consider worst-case scenarios. Maybe they won’t even happen, but it can help to look at every possibility. Two analysts have done that for California’s two biggest pension systems. As of the most current figures, the California Public

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State pensions improve, but members living longer

Is it morning in California for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System? Both CalPERS and CalSTRS’ funds have performed better lately, even as members are living longer. CalPERS is doing much better since 2008,

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Retirement will be painful for most

In an excellent column in the U-T San Diego, Dan McSwain paints a grim retirement picture for almost everybody: For most Americans, it’s tempting to live in denial or outright fantasyland when it comes to paying for retirement. That’s because

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Gordon Tullock, RIP

The great economist Gordon Tullock died recently at age 92. He is most associated with Public Choice Economics. Under it, economists look at government bureaucrats, not as disinterested, omniscient parties trying to keep things going by enforcing the rule of

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Higher tuition hikes — for what purpose?

  Last week, on a post-election panel presented by Capitol Weekly, I raised the issue of potential tax increases being contemplated by public unions and other groups in the next election and said that one of the reasons more revenue

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