California pension fund in trouble

[miketx]

Debates about California’s pension crisis almost always focus on the big numbers – the hundreds of billions of dollars (and, by some estimates, more than $1 trillion) in unfunded liabilities that plague the public-pension funds. For instance, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System is only 68 percent funded – meaning it only has about two-thirds of the money needed to pay for the pension promises made to current and future retirees.

CalPERS and its union backers insist that there’s nothing to worry about, that future bull markets will provide enough returns to cover this taxpayer-backed debt. Pension reformers warn that cities will go bankrupt as pension payments consume larger chunks of municipal budgets. They also warn that pensioners are at risk if the shortfalls become too great. The fears are serious, but they mainly involve predictions about what will happen a decade or more into the future.

What about the here and now? California municipalities and school districts are facing larger bills from CalPERS and from the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) to pay for sharply rising retirement costs. Most of them can come up with the money right now, but that money is coming directly out of their operating budgets. That means that California taxpayers are paying more to fund the pension system, and getting fewer services in return.

Study confirms the California pension crisis is hitting now
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Nothing to see here folks. Just business as usual.

 

[gipper]

Pensions? Who gets a pension these days? Certainly not most working in the private sector.

I would guess pensions have become almost exclusively the realm of the public sector.

To make matters worse, many public sector workers get very handsome pension benefits. A friend in CA tells me his public sector working wife, will receive about 80% of her working wage when she retires and collects her pension. Same thing in Illinois. A school teacher in Michigan retired at 50...he bought 10 years of seniority back in the 80s (WTF...who can do that in the private sector?)

PLUS...get this...many public sector workers are provided HC, should they retire before age 65.

Is it any wonder public sector pensions across the country are in trouble financially, to say nothing of the terrible unfairness of it all.

 

[miketx]

Pensions? Who gets a pension these days? Certainly not most working in the private sector.

I would guess pensions have become almost exclusively the realm of the public sector.

To make matters worse, many public sector workers get very handsome pension benefits. A friend in CA tells me his public sector working wife, will receive about 80% of her working wage when she retires and collects her pension. Same thing in Illinois. A school teacher in Michigan retired at 50...he bought 10 years of seniority back in the 80s (WTF...who can do that in the private sector?)

PLUS...get this...many public sector workers are provided HC, should they retire before age 65.

Is it any wonder public sector pensions across the country are in trouble financially, to say nothing of the terrible unfairness of it all.

Indeed, government workers.

 

[AvgGuyIA]

I wonder how many public sector pensioners are receiving more than 100% of their pre-retirement wages? The liberal states are doing this to themselves. Big cuts in pensions are due.

 

[miketx]

I wonder how many public sector pensioners are receiving more than 100% of their pre-retirement wages? The liberal states are doing this to themselves. Big cuts in pensions are due.

The governments use the pension funds for "other things", then want taxpayers to bail their thieving hides out.

 

[MACAULAY]

NO FEDERAL BAILOUTS FOR CALIFORNIA.

You know the begging and bitching and whining are coming.

Bolshevik-run places like Chicago and California made their own bed with these Public Employee Union Pension Plans.

Democrat-run places like them perpetrated a Criminal Scam on their Citizens. Corrupt Public Employee Unions donated huge amounts to Democrat Candidates...then, when those candidates were elected, they larded up the Corrupt Public Employee Unions with Fat Retirement Plans in payment....knowing they would be retired or dead by the time the chickens came home to roost.

Its was essentially bribery. And now the chickens are coming home to roost.

And it is most certainly a Democratic Party Problem.

I suggest Honest, Rational Citizens get the Hell out of California, Chicago, Baltimore---any place run by Democrats for more than 40 years---before the whole scam collapses, as surely it will.

 

[martybegan]

I wonder how many public sector pensioners are receiving more than 100% of their pre-retirement wages? The liberal states are doing this to themselves. Big cuts in pensions are due.

considering some State Constitutions prevent any changes in pensions already issued or already promised, that is going to be difficult.