Lawrence J. McQuillan | Wednesday August 5, 2015 at 5:20 PM PDT
I’ve appeared on more than 70 television and radio talk shows coast-to-coast in the past three months to discuss my new book California Dreaming: Lessons on How to Resolve America’s Public Pension Crisis. One common question has been: “Aren’t Democrats responsible for creating the unfunded public pension debt by over-promising pension benefits?” My answer,...
Read More »
Lawrence J. McQuillan | Thursday July 30, 2015 at 2:48 PM PDT
In an effort to control skyrocketing retirement costs in the massive University of California system, U.C. employees hired after July 1, 2016, will be able to choose a 401(k)-style pension plan, the first time this has been offered. Governor Jerry Brown and U.C. president Janet Napolitano negotiated the agreement, which was enshrined in the...
Read More »
Lawrence J. McQuillan | Wednesday April 15, 2015 at 4:26 PM PDT
In a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal titled “Pension Reform Doesn’t Mean Higher Taxes,” Andrew Biggs correctly pointed out that new Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) rules require state and local governments across America to be more transparent about the financial health of their public-pension plans. But, as he noted, the rules...
Read More »
Lawrence J. McQuillan | Thursday June 12, 2014 at 11:27 AM PDT
The revised budget unveiled in May by California Gov. Jerry Brown seeks to increase the amount of money that public school districts and their teachers would pay into the teacher pension fund going forward. The legislature must approve a budget by June 15 or legislators forfeit their pay until a budget is passed. The...
Read More »
Lawrence J. McQuillan | Thursday February 6, 2014 at 10:56 AM PST
Mayor Jim Righeimer of Costa Mesa, California, is taking the city’s police union to court saying he was the target of police intimidation for trying to curb pension costs associated with the city’s police officers and other employees. Costa Mesa has $200 million of unfunded pension liabilities for its government workers. The city has...
Read More »
Lawrence J. McQuillan | Monday September 9, 2013 at 5:20 PM PDT
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) is the nation’s largest public pension fund. It also has massive unfunded liabilities, as much as $290 billion depending on the calculation method. Many are quick to blame the Great Recession and its low investment returns for the unfunded debts. But new data uncovered by the Sacramento...
Read More »
Vicki E. Alger | Monday September 3, 2012 at 11:29 AM PDT
Most Americans are celebrating Labor Day with barbecues, picnics, and parades—but not the Chicago Teachers Union. They’re busy planning the city’s first teachers’ strike in 25 years, which incidentally coincides with the September 10 start of most Chicago Public Schools. Observers had hoped a strike could be averted when Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and...
Read More »
Peter Gordon | Friday June 8, 2012 at 2:23 PM PDT
It seems that push has come to shove in some California cities. The Stockton City Council voted to give its City Manager the green light to file for bankruptcy—which could address the problem of that city’s debt, now thought to be in the range of $25-40 million. The City’s diminished income is not up...
Read More »
