Pension Legislation Updates: 2008

State of California Post-Employment Benefits Commission

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger named this bi-partisan commission to bring forth recommendations about public employee pensions.  Their conclusion was that LACERS is an example of an agency doing all the right things to fulfill its obligations to current Retired and Active Members.  The report also commended retirement systems, including LACERS, for pre-funding retiree health benefits.  The report was released on January 7, 2008.  It is available at http://www.pebc.ca.gov/.

Proposed Richman Initiative Fails to Qualify for 2008 Ballot

Former State Assemblyman Keith Richman proposed an initiative to curb public employee pensions on the 2008 general ballot.  Dr. Richman failed to get enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.  An important footnote to this proposed initiative is that all changes would have applied to new governmental employees, not existing ones.