CalPERS earned a 15.7% net return in 2017, besting its benchmark by 25 basis points, Chief Investment Officer Theodore Eliopoulos said at Monday's investment committee meeting.
Global equity, with a 24% net return, was the strongest performer for the $356.6 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System, Sacramento. The worst-performing asset class was the liquidity portfolio, which returned 1.2%.
By Jonathan J. Cooper | Associated Press
SACRAMENTO — For decades in California, a sacrosanct rule has governed public employees’ pensions: Benefits promised can never be taken away.
But cases before the state Supreme Court threaten to reverse that premise and open the door to benefit cuts for workers still on the job.
The lawsuits have enormous implications for California cities, counties, schools, fire districts and other local bodies facing a sharp rise in their pension costs.
Two serial critics of defined benefit plans have recently published comments that selectively mine the facts so they can advance their anti-pension platforms.
Communications & Stakeholder Relations
(916) 795-3991
Brad W. Pacheco, Deputy Executive Officer
Wayne Davis, Chief, Office of Public Affairs
Contact: Megan White, Information Officer
newsroom@calpers.ca.gov
Dan Borenstein's most recent column greatly oversimplifies and needlessly discounts the real impact that Governor Brown's pension reform has had since it took effect in January 2013.
by Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times
Along with taxation and immigration, one political issue that never seems to go away is the cost of public employees, especially their pensions.
Public retirement plans are consistently blamed for local and state budget woes. Any time a community runs into fiscal trouble, its workers are among the first to be demonized, and often bear the brunt of the remedies. After all, pension obligations are typically among the largest liabilities any government entity must bear, so why not hack away?
By Jon Ortiz, Sacramento Bee
A proposed ballot measure that would make future pension benefits subject to voter approval is fraught with legal and administrative peril, according to a letter from CalPERS’ chief executive officer, eliciting a response from one of the measure’s proponents that the assessment is a “lie.”
By Jon Ortiz, Sacramento Bee
Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor said this week he doesn’t know what would happen if a new public pension ballot proposal becomes law.
by Carolyn Constantino
A new website reveals that Enron-billionaire John Arnold has spent up to $50 million of his own fortune to dismantle retirement plans for firefighters, nurses, teachers and other public employees.
By Tim Reid
Public worker unions and others who back traditional pensions over 401(k)-style plans got ammunition on Tuesday from a new study that shows U.S. state governments that made the switch did not achieve the predicted savings but rather lost money.
The National Institute on Retirement Security (NERS), a non-profit group that has defended traditional public pensions, issued case studies on three states that switched to 401(k)-style defined contribution retirement plans.
