Time to discuss state employee benefits

Joe Nation

Stanford's Institute for Economic Policy Research has issued two recent reports on the condition of public employee pension funds in California. The first identified a $425 billion funding shortfall for three state pension systems: the California Public Employees' Retirement System, California State Teachers' Retirement System, and the University of California Retirement System. The second report found a nearly $200 billion shortfall for local government pension systems.

Both reports focused on the overall financial health of pension systems in California but did not touch on retiree benefit levels. It's time to begin that conversation.

Discussing public employee retirement benefits is dangerous politically. So let's start with the legal status of benefits owed to public employees.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at December 8, 2010 1:03 AM
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