The Stanford University research team that shocked Sacramento this year by declaring that the state’s three pension systems are more than $400 billion underfunded has struck again, saying local government pension systems are nearly $200 billion short, according to the Sacramento Bee.
The amount of money in question is astounding. Here in Orange County, the Orange County Employees’ Retirement system has more than $12 million in unfunded liabilities, and the second fastest growth in liabilities since 1996.
We are going to get stuck with that bill.
The Orange County Employers Association has spent a small fortune this year alone trying to elect politicians who will do their bidding. They have failed at every turn. They are rumored to have spent over four hundred thousand on the John Leos campaign for the Anaheim City Council. He lost. So did Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhu when he ran as a carpetbagger for the 4th Supervisorial District.
And a union shill in Brea, Ric Clough, lost too, in a bid for the Brea City Council.
The voters it would seem are starting to wake up…
Remember this report every time a public union screams “We aren’t spending enough on _______________ (fill in “schools,” or “streets,” or “fighting crime,” etc.) We are spending plenty – its just going towards their retirement plan instead of the public service.
A large portion of the California residents are the equivalent of walking zombies!
They elected Jerry Brown for god sake! The guy is the biggest union whore in the country!
A lot of Calfornia voters are not asleep; they are just DEAD THICK!
These liability projections are a sham. They are based uopn so many assumptions as to be unreliable. For instance, assuming what the work force will be 10-20-30-40-50 years from now, including what the pay will be in those out years upon which retirement will be based. Then assuming at what age people are hired and at what age they will retire and what the average life span will be then. These are forecasts for a workfoce the majority of which have not yet been hired, many of them are yet to be born! It’s a bunch of hocus pocus that no one should take too seriouisly.
Been around a while!
The fact that you either work within a union system or ARE a union boss makes you a tetchy bit less credible than a STANFORD study!
What ya think?
My bets are they are right on the mark; also the fact unions are as corrupt as any mafia makes me also think they might just be in the ball park!
Now we know WHO lives in the Tustin Hills!
Michelle Never worked for or been a member of a union in my life. Nor do I live in the hills. Anyway, dig into the public sector retirement system of your choice and read one of the actuarial studies, paying particular attention to the assumptions. One I forgot to mention is an assumption of what annual salary increases will be for the public entity work force going forward. A common assumption is, for example, 3% year in and year out. Just think what 1 year of no raises, or even 1 year of salary reductions, means to those assumptions. Future actuarial studies should acknowledge the salary reductions that are occurring in some pubiic agencies (Capo Unified for instance) and I would expect that will significantly reduce the so called unfunded liability. These studies are all the same kind of smoke and mirrors financial-speak that brought us the housing bubble and the derivative investment sham. Don’t take their findings to the bank (or the poor house)!
We can go back and forth on this but truth be told; only time will tell!
OC has 4 years!