Assembly Bill 386 sailed through the Assembly Judiciary Committee last week on a unanimous vote with virtually no discussion about its provisions. The measure also received express treatment a few days earlier from the Assembly committee that deals with public employee matters. Given its cavalier handling, one might think that...
Walters: California’s Immense Pension Mess
California’s public employee pension dilemma boils down to this: The California Public Employees Retirement System has scarcely two-thirds of the money it needs to pay benefits that state and local governments have promised their workers. Moreover, CalPERS’ official estimate that it is 70.8% funded is based on an assumption of...
Walters: Promises Made, but Not Kept
Last month, McClatchy Newspapers and the ProPublica news organization published an investigative article delving into how billions of dollars meant to reduce repeat criminal activity by improving local jails and probation services were siphoned off for other purposes. “Since 2011, California has sent more than $8 billion to counties to cover the costs of the massive...
Walters: Bait and Switch on Pensions
Local officials, particularly those in California’s 400-plus cities, have been complaining loudly in recent years about pension costs, raising the specter of insolvency if they continue their rapid increase. Last year, the League of California Cities issued a report declaring that “pension costs will dramatically increase to unsustainable levels.” The California Public...
Walters: Local Governments Are in Distress
California’s economy has been booming for most of this decade and has generated a cornucopia of tax revenues for state and local governments. The state has benefited most, because it collects income taxes. Californians’ taxable incomes have been soaring, especially for those atop the economic ladder, whose tax rates also...
Walters: Pension Costs Hitting Home — Hard
Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District came into being 14 years ago when four small fire departments serving farms and small towns east of Modesto merged. The district now flirts with insolvency, a case study in how rapidly growing costs for pensions and other employee benefits are clobbering local governments. Four...
Walters: New State Budget a Windfall for Unions
The state budget package Democratic legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom just enacted is sprinkled with billions of dollars in extra goodies for their most important political constituency, labor unions. Take, for example, Senate Bill 90, the budget’s omnibus education measure. It would allocate $3.1 billion to reduce mandatory payments that...
Walters: A New Front in Battle Over Gig Workers
One of the most contentious – and potentially far-reaching – bills of the current legislative session is Assembly Bill 5, which would draw a legal line between the definitions of employees and contractors. AB 5, carried by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a San Diego Democrat, is an outgrowth of a state...