The 2025-26 Budget: Concession Bargaining

May 19, 2025 - The first is payment towards the “normal cost, ” which is the amount of money that actuaries determine (based on actuarial assumptions like expected investment returns on assets) must be contributed to prefund the benefit earned by employees today.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5047

MOU Fiscal Analysis: Bargaining Unit 6 (Corrections)

Sep 7, 2023 - The normal cost is the amount of money that actuaries determine must be set aside for the benefit employees earn today so that the contribution and any future investment returns on that contribution are sufficient to pay for the benefit after the employee retires.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4800

The 2024-25 Budget: Proposition 2 Debt Payment Proposals

Mar 20, 2024 - Supplemental Pensions Payments Employers May Contribute Any Amount of Money Above What Is Required. Pension boards determine —either according to actuarial standards or statutory requirements —how much money employers must contribute to the pension system each year to address any existing unfunded liabilities.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4887

MOU Fiscal Analysis: Bargaining Unit 5 (Highway Patrol)

Aug 23, 2024 - Depending on how actual experience between now and 2029-30 deviates from actuarial assumptions (for example, investment returns), the state’s contribution could be higher or lower than currently projected.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4920

MOU Fiscal Analysis: Bargaining Unit 16 (Physicians, Dentists, and Podiatrists)

Jul 14, 2025 - The reduced amount of money invested in the trust fund will result in higher unfunded liabilities in the long-run. In most of the agreements, the state ’s contributions towards the benefit would be fully restored in 2027-28.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5064

MOU Fiscal Analysis: Bargaining Units 10 (Professional Scientists) and 18 (Psychiatric Technician)

Sep 9, 2025 - Suspending employer and employee contributions creates a short-term benefit to both the employer and employee; however, it will result in less money being invested in the trust fund and higher unfunded liabilities for the state in the long run.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5073

MOU Fiscal Analysis: Bargaining Unit 12 (Craft and Maintenance)

Jun 27, 2025 - Typically, a furlough for state employees reduces state employee pay by 4.62  percent in exchange for one day (eight hours) off per month without affecting other elements of compensation (for example, pension and health benefits).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5060

MOU Fiscal Analysis: Bargaining Unit 9 (Professional Engineers)

Jun 27, 2025 - Under state law, vacation or annual leave is considered a form of wages that is vested when earned. As such, employers cannot adopt a “use it or lose it ” policy for earned employee vacation and annual leave whereby unused vacation or annual leave above a certain level is forfeited at the end of the year.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5061

The 2022-23 Budget: Analysis of the Care Economy Workforce Development Package

Mar 10, 2022 - However, how the proposed package would build upon —and not duplicate —these efforts is unclear. In  addition, how any evaluation of the proposed package would be coordinated with the required evaluation  components of prior state investments also is unclear.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4572

Strengthening the CalSTRS Funding Plan

Mar 10, 2021 - Based on actuarial assumptions, the system’s actuaries determine how much contributors must pay to cover the normal cost of benefits and to pay down any UAO, often over a certain amortization period.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4400