The 2016-17 Budget: Public Employment Relations Board (PERB)

Mar 1, 2016 - While considering the 2015-16 state budget, members of the Legislature ’s budget committees expressed concerns regarding the backlog of cases at PERB and considered a proposal to augment PERB ’s budget by $1 million.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/report/3377

A Review of the CalSTRS Funding Plan: CalSTRS Funding Plan Relies on Abstract Calculation

Feb 2, 2016 - The calculation estimates what CalSTRS ’ funding situation would be today had the state made different decisions about teacher pensions in the past. Specifically, the calculation estimates what CalSTRS ’ unfunded liabilities would be if (1) the state never granted teachers more generous pensions in the late 1990s and (2)
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3333

A Review of the CalSTRS Funding Plan: Funding Plan May Not Meet Principle of “Shared Responsibility”

Feb 2, 2016 - Whether State Shares in Responsibility Depends On Future Investment Experience. As we described in our second post , the funding plan—as implemented—makes the state responsible for an estimate of what CalSTRS’ unfunded liabilities would be today if the state had made different decisions about teacher pensions in the past.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3337

A Review of the CalSTRS Funding Plan: Background

Feb 2, 2016 - Funding Plan a Major State Accomplishment. Prior to state action, CalSTRS faced a huge unfunded liability with no plan in place for funding teacher pensions. CalSTRS was expected to exhaust its assets in the mid-2040s, an alarming prospect for a pension system.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3332

A Review of the CalSTRS Funding Plan: State’s Future Responsibility for CalSTRS Uncertain

Feb 2, 2016 - In these scenarios, state contributions reach about 18 percent of payroll by the mid-2040s. In the context of current statewide teacher payroll, the difference between these two extremes is roughly $5 billion —more than three times the state ’s current contribution to CalSTRS ’ main pension program.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3336

A Review of the CalSTRS Funding Plan: Funding Plan May Not Meet Principle of “Shared Responsibility” [Publication Details]

Feb 2, 2016 - This post is the sixth in a series looking at the implementation of the CalSTRS funding plan. In this post, we describe how the plan might fall short of meeting the principle of “shared responsibility,” a key goal of the Legislature in passing the plan. Specifically, we explain how the state may not incur higher costs under the funding plan.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/3337

A Review of the CalSTRS Funding Plan: Theoretical Investment Gains Have Shifted Unfunded Liabilities to Districts

Feb 2, 2016 - Specifically, the calculation estimates what CalSTRS’ unfunded liabilities would be now if (1) teachers earned less generous pension benefits and (2) the state and teachers had contributed more to CalSTRS’ main pension fund.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3334

A Review of the CalSTRS Funding Plan: Recent Policy Change Increases District Rates

Feb 2, 2016 - Having identified this problem, CalSTRS amended its policy in November 2015 to require increases in the district contribution when state contributions are insufficient to pay for the state share of unfunded liabilities.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3338

A Review of the CalSTRS Funding Plan: Treatment of Teacher Contributions Also Increase District Unfunded Liabilities

Feb 2, 2016 - When the Legislature passed the CalSTRS funding plan, administration documents characterized the cost sharing as follows: districts would pay $47 billion, the state would pay $20 billion, and teachers would pay $8 billion.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3335

A Review of the CalSTRS Funding Plan: Conclusion

Feb 2, 2016 - The policy employs an abstract calculation that estimates what CalSTRS ’ unfunded liabilities would be today had the state ’s elected leaders made different decisions about teacher pensions in the past.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3339