A senior CalPERS attorney just told me that the annual pension liability reports for local agencies, which are normally distributed every October, have now been delayed until after the November elections. The delays are allegedly due to furloughs, but conveniently prevent local pension watchdogs from using the data to promote fiscally conservative candidates and pension reform leading up to the November 2nd.
I bury'd it.
This years’ reports would be the first to calculate pension liabilities after the disastrous market crash of 2008/2009 which caused CalPERS to loose a large portion of its holdings, which in turn has caused cities’ unfunded liability and annual contributions to skyrocket. But the damage to each city is unknown until the individual reports are released.
How bad will it be? Here’s one example:
Read the rest of “CalPERS Delays Scary Pension Reports Until After the Elections”
We can thank Mr, Correa and the many politicians, from both sides of the aisle who put us on this unsustainable road.
Easy fix to the pension mess.
US government takes over the funds. Cancels them. Out of the fund assets, the US government takes what would have been paid to Social Security if the workers were covered, then all of the covered employees would become members of the Social Security system and their monthly payments would be figured the same as the rest of US.
Any funds left over would be distributed to the pensioners prorated. They can roll it over to IRA’s or pay their taxes and spend it.
This would help Social Security by boosting its assets, would help state and local governments by eliminating the unfunded liabilities, and would fix the systematic theft built into the pension systems.