Post by unlawflcombatnt on Jul 23, 2009 16:29:02 GMT -6
from the Los Angeles Times
California's biggest government pension funds
lose almost $100 billion
"CalPERS' preliminary losses were $56.2 billion in the fiscal year that ended last month, while the California State Teachers' Retirement System lost $43.4 billion."
By Marc Lifsher
July 22, 2009
"On Tuesday, the country's 2 biggest public pension funds reported losing almost $100 billion in the fiscal year that ended June 30. And the governor is expected to highlight the new numbers as he renews a campaign to trim the cost of providing lifetime, fixed benefits to hundreds of thousands of government retirees....
The state, he said, would save money by giving smaller pensions to new state workers through changing "our unsustainable retiree pension formulas."
The governor's push for a pension overhaul took on a new urgency when the California Public Employees' Retirement System and a sister agency, the California State Teachers' Retirement System, separately announced that they'd lost about a 1/4 of the value of their investment portfolios. CalPERS' preliminary losses were $56.2 billion, while the teachers' retirement system lost $43.4 billion.
Schwarzenegger told reporters last week that the big pension funds could face an estimated $300-billion shortfall in covering the cost of pensions to current and future retirees.
The financial hemorrhaging underscores the risk to taxpayers of ensuring generous fixed benefits to retired government workers, said Marcia Fritz, vice president of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, which seeks to revamp the pension system.
"It's crazy to put so much of our resources into such a generous retirement," said Fritz, a certified public accountant in the Sacramento suburbs.
The tremendous drop in the portfolios' value is expected to have a direct effect on the amount of money that the state and about 2,000 local governments and school districts must contribute in coming years to pay for pensions for more than 1.6 million government workers, retirees and their families.
As income from the pension investments falls, the governments would have to make up the difference to meet the state's pension obligations to workers and retirees...."
www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-calpers22-2009jul22,0,5416427.story
California's biggest government pension funds
lose almost $100 billion
"CalPERS' preliminary losses were $56.2 billion in the fiscal year that ended last month, while the California State Teachers' Retirement System lost $43.4 billion."
By Marc Lifsher
July 22, 2009
"On Tuesday, the country's 2 biggest public pension funds reported losing almost $100 billion in the fiscal year that ended June 30. And the governor is expected to highlight the new numbers as he renews a campaign to trim the cost of providing lifetime, fixed benefits to hundreds of thousands of government retirees....
The state, he said, would save money by giving smaller pensions to new state workers through changing "our unsustainable retiree pension formulas."
The governor's push for a pension overhaul took on a new urgency when the California Public Employees' Retirement System and a sister agency, the California State Teachers' Retirement System, separately announced that they'd lost about a 1/4 of the value of their investment portfolios. CalPERS' preliminary losses were $56.2 billion, while the teachers' retirement system lost $43.4 billion.
Schwarzenegger told reporters last week that the big pension funds could face an estimated $300-billion shortfall in covering the cost of pensions to current and future retirees.
The financial hemorrhaging underscores the risk to taxpayers of ensuring generous fixed benefits to retired government workers, said Marcia Fritz, vice president of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, which seeks to revamp the pension system.
"It's crazy to put so much of our resources into such a generous retirement," said Fritz, a certified public accountant in the Sacramento suburbs.
The tremendous drop in the portfolios' value is expected to have a direct effect on the amount of money that the state and about 2,000 local governments and school districts must contribute in coming years to pay for pensions for more than 1.6 million government workers, retirees and their families.
As income from the pension investments falls, the governments would have to make up the difference to meet the state's pension obligations to workers and retirees...."
www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-calpers22-2009jul22,0,5416427.story